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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA; 



RUTH THE GLEANER 



AND 



ESTHER THE QUEEN 




WILLIAM M. TAYLOR, D.D., LL.D. 

PASTOR OF BROADwAy TABERNACLE, NEW YORK 

AUTHOR OF " DAVID, KING OF ISRAEL" ETC 







f yy 



NOV 14 ^ 

NEW YORK ■■ ^-^-^'-^ /^ 

HARPER & BROTHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE 
189I 



1^«6- 



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By the rev. dr. WM. M. TAYLOR. 



DANIEL THE BELOVED. PETER THE APOSTLE, 



DAVID, KING OF ISRAEL. 
JOSEPH THE PRIME - MINISTER. 
ELIJAH THE PROPHET. 



MOSES THE LAW-GIVER. 

PAUL THE MISSIONARY. Ill'd. 

THE SCOTTISH PULPIT. 



RUTH THE GLEANER AND ESTHER THE QUEEN. 
12mo, Cloth, $1 50 per volume. 



Published by HARPER & BROTHERS, New York. 

6^* Habpkb & Brothers will send any of the above works by mail, postage prepaid, to 
any part of the United States, Canada, or Mexico, on receipt of the price. 



/ 



Copyright, 1891, hy Harper & Brothers. 



All rights reserved. 



PREFACE. 



In adding another to the volumes on Bible Biog- 
raphies which have been so widely and generously 
received by the Christian public, it is unnecessary to 
say anything as to the method which I have adopt- 
ed. The present work will be found to possess the 
same characteristics as those already issued, its only 
peculiarity being that it deals with two women whose 
names are dear to the hearts alike of Jews and Chris- 
tians. I have put them together into one volume 
mainly for the sake of convenience ; though there is 
a certain link of association between them, inasmuch 
as the Book of Ruth describes the experiences of a 
Gentile widow in the midst of Jewish surroundings ; 
and the Book of Esther describes those of a Jewish 
orphan in a Gentile city. 

The preparation of these Lectures was peculiarly 
interesting to myself, and they are given to the press 
in the hope that they may contribute to the promo- 
tion of that revival of Biblical Study which, during 
recent years, has been so gratifying to every lover of 
the Scriptures. 

That He without Whose blessing all human efforts 
must be vain may ddgn to use these pages for the 
advancement of His glory in the temporal and spirit- 
ual welfare of man is " my heart's desire and prayer.'' 

William M. Taylor. 



RUTH THE GLEANER. 



I. 

EMIGRATION AND BEREAVEMENT. 

RUTH I., 1-5. 

This little book of four chapters is unique among 
the treasures of the Word of God. It is unlike 
every other portion of Holy Scripture ; and yet it 
has on it the stamp of inspiration which is common 
to them all. Exquisite in its pastoral simplicity, 
and valuable for the glimpses which it gives us into 
the common life of the Jewish people at the time 
to which it refers, it is also deeply interesting to 
the devout reader, from its relation to one who was 
an ancestress of David, and of David's greater 
Son, and from the lessons of love and constancy 
and purity and integrity which it so abundantly sug- 
gests. Withal, however, it is questionable whether 
it receives from us the amount of attention to 
which it is entitled. It is said that Dr. Franklin 
was once in the company of several ladies of the 
English nobility, when the conversation turned upon 
pastoral poetry. The ladies took a considerable 
part in the discussion, and after hearing their crit- 
icisms on various authors, the doctor offered to 
I 



2 RUTH THE GLEANER. 

read the translation of a pastoral for their amuse- 
ment. He read, with a few verbal alterations, the 
Book of Ruth. They were enraptured, pronounced 
it the finest they had ever heard from any language, 
and insisted upon knowing whose it was. Imagine 
their confusion when he gravely told them that he 
had read it from the Bible. I do not vouch for the 
truth of the story, though I found it in a reliable place 
enough;* but though few of us, perhaps, could be 
so thoroughly imposed on now, I question whether 
any of us could give at once a clear and concise 
account of the story that is here told, brief as it is, 
and I am sure that very few of us have bestowed 
upon it that measure of attention which is needful 
for the bringing out from it of the lessons which it 
was designed to teach. We may, therefore, spend 
very profitably, as well as pleasantly, a few Sabbath 
evenings in studying it together. 

In modern editions of the Hebrew Scriptures, the 
Book of Ruth is placed among the Hagiographa, 
which is the third division of the Old Testament writ- 
ings, and which consists of the five rolls or Megil- 
loth, the three poetical books (Job, Proverbs, and 
Psalms), and the two books of Chronicles. Ruth is 



* The Biblical Treasury, by J. Cowper Gray, vol, iii. , p. 171. 
I find, however, in the preface to The Beautiful Gleaner, by 
the late Rev. William Braden, that the same story is told of 
Dr. Samuel Johnson, and on internal grounds it is, perhaps, 
more likely to be true of him than of Franklin. 



RUTH THE GLEANER. 3 

one of the Megilloth, of which the others were the 
Song of Songs, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and Es- 
ther. These books were so called because, for con- 
venient use at the festival on which it was read in 
the synagogue, each was written on a separate roll. 
That of Esther was styled Megillah or the roll, by 
way of eminence, and was read on the Feast of Pu- 
rim, whose origin it describes. That of Ruth was 
read at Pentecost, or the Feast of Weeks, perhaps 
because it contains so graphic a delineation of Boaz 
and his reapers in the harvest field. But this divis- 
ion into separate rolls was probably a mere liturgi- 
cal arrangement, for the Septuagint, or Greek ver- 
sion of the Old Testament, places Ruth between 
Judges and I. Samuel, as we have it in our English 
Bibles. Some, following the authority of Josephus, 
have alleged that it was originally incorporated with 
the Book of Judges. That, however, has been much 
disputed, and the general opinion now is that it has 
ahvay3 been a distinct and separate portion of the 
Old Testament Canon, and that it is placed where 
we have it because it forms a fitting introduction 
to the books which tell of the glory of King David's 
reign. 

The date of its composition cannot be determined 
with precision. Some have gone so far as to put it 
after the Captivity, and would ascribe its authorship 
to Ezra, or Nehemiah, on the ground of certain 
Chaldaic forms of expression which they allege 
they have detected in it. But it is remarkable that 



4 RUTH THE GLEANER. 

these all occur in the reported conversations which 
the book contains, and not in the narrative por- 
tions — a fact which suggests that they were proba- 
bly due to some peculiarity of dialect not yet sat- 
isfactorily accounted for ; and in any case they 
cannot outweigh the great improbability that a book 
which tells, without extenuation or apology, how a 
Bethlehemite like Boaz married a Moabitish wom- 
an, should be produced at the very time when such 
alliances were so bitterly denounced by the Jewish 
leaders. From an examination of the book itself, it 
seems clear that while it could not have been writ- 
ten earlier than David's day, because it contains 
two references to David himself, it could not have 
been composed much, if any, later, else it would 
have contained the name of Solomon in the gene- 
alogical table with which it closes. 

Again, the tone of the book throughout is liberal 
and tolerant to the Gentiles ; and part of its design 
— unconsciously to its author, perhaps, but not the 
less intentional with God — seems to be to prepare 
for the time when through the promised Messiah the 
middle wall of partition between the Jews and other 
nations should be broken down. Now the reign of 
David appears to have been the only portion of 
Jewish history during which such a spirit towards 
the Gentiles was shown without any breach of loy- 
alty to Jehovah. David himself in his public ad- 
ministration was "the man according to God's 
own heart;" and yet as one has suggestively said, 



RUTH THE GLEANER. 5 

"nothing is more characteristic of him and his time, 
though it is a characteristic too commonly over- 
looked, than the fair and easy terms on which he 
met all foreigners, and the rare fidelity with which 
friendly aliens clave to his cause, even when it was 
a losing cause."* This fact, therefore, taken in con- 
nection with the personal relation of David to the 
heroine of the story, seems to make it, if not abso- 
lutely certain, at least fairly probable, that the Book 
of Ruth was written some time during David's reign, 
and we know that the Royal Psalmist had contem- 
poraries who, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, 
might have produced such a work. Indeed, there 
is much in the simple pathos of the parable of the 
ewe lamb to remind us of the idyllic beauty of the 
Book of Ruth, and though we have not anywhere 
met with the opinion, both might well enough have 
come from the prophet Nathan. 

As to the date of the events recorded in this book 
all we know is that they happened " in the days 
when the Judges ruled." But as to how long the 
time of the Judges lasted, or which of them are par- 
ticularly referred to in the opening verse of Ruth, 
we are again in the dark. For it is not yet settled 
among critics whether we must regard the Judges 
as so many magistrates having jurisdiction over the 
whole land, and ruling consecutively from Othniel 
to Eli ; or whether we must view them as local lead- 

* Samuel Cox, in The Expositor, vol. ii., pp. 8, 9. 



6 RUTH THE GLEANER. 

ers, each restricted to some one particular neighbor- 
hood, and some of whom may have been contempo- 
raries. Lord Arthur Hervey, for example, believes 
that Ehud, Gideon, and Jephthah flourished at the 
same time ; while others suppose that the book, up 
at least to the end of the sixteenth chapter, is to be 
regarded as a continuous history of events strictly 
following one another. So, with this diversity of 
view existing, it is difficult to fix upon any one 
judge as that under whose administration Boaz 
lived. But if we may presume that the genealog- 
ical table at the end of Ruth is without a break, so 
far at least as the steps between Boaz and David 
are concerned, then as Boaz was the great-grand- 
father of David, we may not greatly err if we con- 
clude that the incidents here recorded occurred 
at a date somewhere between one hundred and 
one hundred and fifty years prior to the days of 
David. 

But now, leaving all preliminaries, let us enter upon 
the book itself. It tells a short and simple story of 
family trial deepening into the darkness of repeated 
bereavement, and then breaking out into the bright- 
ness of a joy which is all the more delightful by rea- 
son of the gloom that went before. The household 
was composed of Elimelech and his wife Naomi, 
with their two sons, Mahlon and Chilion. Like all 
Hebrew names these are significant, but whether 
we are to consider them as prophetic is quite an- 
other matter, though in at least two of the cases 



RUTH THE GLEANER. 7 

their appropriateness is remarkable. Eliinelech is 
" My God the King," or " My God is King." Na- 
omi is " sweet," or, perhaps, an abbreviation for 
" God is sweet," while Mahlon is " sickliness," and 
Chilion is "consumption" — names which might well 
enough have been given to the boys because of the 
perception in them by their parents of some deli- 
cacy of constitution, although other scholars pre- 
fer to interpret them as denoting " mildness of dis- 
position " and " beautiful completeness," and one 
would think that parents would more naturally con- 
nect these ideas with their children than seek to 
perpetuate in their names the associations of phys- 
ical debility. 

The home of this family was in Bethlehem-Judah, 
so called to distinguish it from another place of the 
same name in the territory of the tribe of Zebulon, 
but now needing no such particular designation, 
since it is to us forever memorable as the birth- 
place of the Lord Jesus Christ. It was little among 
the thousands of Judah, and up till this time, with 
the exception of the fact that near it was the grave 
of Rachel, there had been nothing about it to make 
it specially attractive to the people of the land. 
Rather it had acquired, if anything, an unenviable 
notoriety among the tribes, for out of it had gone 
the Levite, who had settled as a household priest 
with Micah in Mount Ephraim, and had been car- 
ried off by the Danites to Laish, where he minis- 
tered at the altar which these early idolaters had 



8 RUTH THE GLEANER. 

set up.* To it, also, had belonged the ill-fated wom- 
an whose cruel treatment by the men of Gibeah led 
to the almost utter extinction of the tribe of Ben- 
jamin by the rest of the Israelites. If, therefore, 
nothing more had been told us concerning it than 
what is contained in these two strange episodes of 
Jewish history, which are to be found in the con- 
cluding chapters of the Book of Judges, we might 
have supposed that no good thing could come out 
of Bethlehem. But how far that would have been 
from the truth the Book of Ruth makes evident, 
and we are thereby warned of the danger of judging 
of the character of a place from one or two particu- 
larly unpleasant incidents -in its history. Indeed, 
when we come, in a rural district like that of Beth- 
lehem, and in such an age, upon a quiet, unaffected, 
simple, pure, and holy home life, like that which is 
here portrayed, we feel that we must not speak of 
the days of the Judges too unqualifiedly, as if they 
had been characterized by constant strife and uni- 
versal defection from the service of God. And, in 
any case, after reading this history, we are not so 
surprised as we otherwise would have been, that 
the sweet singer of Israel, the "darling" of his peo- 
ple, and the leader of psalmody for God's children 
of all succeeding centuries, should have sprung from 
such a stock. 

The town itself is about six miles south of Je- 

* See Judges, chaps, xvii. , xviii. , xix. 



RUTH THE GLEANER. 9 

rusalem, a little to the east of the road that leads 
to Hebron. It stands upon the summit and slopes 
of a narrow ridge which projects eastward from 
the central chain of the Judaean mountains. The 
sides of the hill below the town are carefully ter- 
raced, and even in modern times they are cov- 
ered with fertile vineyards ; while in the valleys 
beneath, and on a little plain to the eastward, there 
are cornfields whose produce, perhaps, gave the 
name Bethlehem, or House of Bread, to the place 
with which they are connected. It was well wa- 
tered, and its other and older name Ephratah ("the 
fruitful ") was probably bestowed because of the fer- 
tility of the district in the midst of which it stood. 
But withal it was not proof against the ravages of 
famine, and at the time at which our story opens 
that great affliction was upon the people. Perhaps 
the former and latter rains had not fallen, and the 
usual, consequences had followed. But whatever 
was the cause, there was " cleanness of teeth " in 
all the borders of the land ; even in the House of 
Bread there was scarcity, and the pressure was so 
sore upon Elimelech and his wife that to escape 
its miseries they went with their two sons to the 
land of Moab. 

The usual resort of the Israelites in time of fam- 
ine was Egypt ; but probably on this occasion the 
way thither was barred by insuperable obstacles, 
and so the members of this household betook them- 
selves to Moab, a district which lay to the south 



lO RUTH THE GLEANER. 

and east of the Dead Sea, ,and comprised the south- 
ern half of the high table-lands which rise above 
the lake. " On every side it was strongly fortified 
by nature. On the north was the tremendous chasm 
of the Arnon. On the west it was limited by the 
precipices, or, more accurately, the cliffs, which de- 
scend almost perpendicularly to the shore of the 
lake, and are intersected only by one or two steep 
and narrow passes. Lastly, on the south and east 
it was protected by a half-circle of hills, which open 
only to allow the passage of the Arnon and another 
of the torrents which descend to the Dead Sea.'"^ 
It was, therefore, not very far from Bethlehem. In- 
deed, its blue mountains are said to be " distinctly 
visible from the Mount of Olives and the heights 
above Bethlehem. "f But it was remarkable for 
general fertility, for Mr. Grove tells us that " the 
whole country is undulating, and, after the general 
level of the plateau is reached, without any serious 
inequalities ; and in this and the absence of con- 
spicuous vegetation has a certain resemblance to 
the downs in the southern counties of England." 
And, again, gathering up the different references to 
it in the prophetical books, he says, "With a meta- 
phor which well expresses at once the pastoral 
wealth of the country and its commanding, almost 
regal, position, but which cannot be conveyed in a 

* Smith's Bible Dictionary, s. v. Moab. 
\ Morison, on Ruth, in Pulpit Commentary. 



RUTH THE GLEANER. II 

translation, Moab is depicted as the strong sceptre, 
the beautiful staff whose fracture will be bewailed 
by all about him and by all who know him. In his 
cities we discern a ' great multitude of people ' liv- 
ing in 'glory ' and in the enjoyment of great ' treas- 
ure ;' crowding the public squares, the house-tops, 
and the ascents and descents of the numerous 
high places and sanctuaries, where the ' priests and 
princes ' of Chemosh or Baal-Peor minister to anx- 
ious devotees. Outside the town lie ' the plentiful 
fields ' luxuriant as the renowned Carmel — the vine- 
yards and gardens of ' summer fruits ' — the harvest 
is being reaped, and the ' hay stored in abundance,' 
the vineyards and the presses are crowded with 
peasants gathering and treading the grapes, the 
land resounds with the clamor of the vintagers.""* 

Here, therefore, there was every probability of 
finding plenty, and as Elimelech and his family 
did not stay in Bethlehem until they were utterly 
impoverished by the famine, but "went out full," 
they would have the means of availing themselves, 
for a time at least, of the abundance by which they 
were surrounded. 

But it was an idolatrous land ; and the question 
has been keenly discussed whether or not Elime- 
lech committed sin in leaving the Land of the Cove- 
nant for such a territory, even under the pressure of 
famine. Many blame him very severely, and do 

* Smith's Bible Dictionary, ut supra. 



12 RUTH THE GLEANER. 

not hesitate to affirm that the afflictions which sub- 
sequently came upon his household were judgments 
inflicted on him for his transgression. Others, again, 
fully vindicate him for his conduct, and grow elo- 
quent over emigration as a remedy for famine. But 
where the record is silent it does not become us to 
be dogmatic on such a matter, although every one 
will recognize how full of spiritual peril it must 
have been to take two young men like Mahlon and 
Chilion into the midst of idolatry ; and it will be 
with all a question whether it was wise to run such 
risk to their souls, simply for the sake of obtaining 
sustenance for their bodies. The relation of the cov- 
enant people to the Promised Land was, of course, 
peculiar ; and the more that was recognized, the 
more loath would they be for any reason to forsake 
it for another. Yet, as we see in David's placing 
of his parents under the care of the King of Moab, 
exceptional circumstances might be held as justify- 
ing a temporary sojourn elsewhere ; and it is ob- 
vious from the language here employed that Elime- 
lech did not mean to leave Bethlehem "for good and 
all," but expected to return thither after the famine 
had ceased. 

But whatever may be said regarding his con- 
duct in this instance, we have no hesitation in ap- 
proving of emigration as one of the best means 
of furnishing relief for overcrowded countries, and 
opening up new fields for industry and enterprise ; 
and it is not without a smile over the commentary 



RUTH THE GLEANER. 13 

which two hundred years have written on his words 
that we read the remarks of quaint old Thomas 
Fuller, which we find in his fragment on the Book 
of Ruth, apropos of this question and this land, to 
the following effect : " Now, if any do demand of 
me my opinion concerning our brethren which of 
late left this kingdom to advance a plantation in 
New England, surely I think as St. Paul said con- 
cerning virgins, he had ' received no commandment 
of the Lord,' so I cannot find any just warrant to 
encourage men to undertake this removal ; but 
think rather the counsel best that King Joash pre- 
scribed to Ahaziah, * Tarry at home.' Yet as for 
those that are already gone, far be it from us to 
conceive them to be such to whom we may not say 
' Godspeed ;' but let us pity them, and pray for 
them, for sure they have no need of our mocks, 
which have too much of their own miseries. I con- 
clude, therefore, of the two Englands what our 
Saviour saith of the two wines, ' No man having 
tasted of the old, presently desireth the new; for 
he saith the old is better.'" In the light of subse- 
quent history this is now rather amusing, and read- 
ing it here in New York one feels very much as he 
does when sitting on the deck of an ocean steamer 
he comes, in some volume of entertaining anec- 
dotes, upon the famous demonstration of the emi- 
nent engineer, who declared it to be impossible for 
any steamship to cross the Atlantic. At the same 
time we must not lose sight of the fact that in all 



14 RUTH THE GLEANER. 

emigrations, whether from one land to another, or 
from East to West in this our own land, regard 
must be had to the spiritual surroundings as well 
as to the physical advantages, and we ought to re- 
member that even the highest worldly prosperity is 
all too dearly purchased by the loss of the soul. 

But though Elimelech escaped famine by moving 
to Moab, he could not escape death. The last ene- 
my has many more avenues to the centre of life in 
us than that of starvation. Even in the midst of 
plenty the summons came which said " thy soul is 
required of thee," and he could not disobey. So 
Naomi was left a widow among strangers, with her 
two sons. How she must have missed the friends 
and neighbors of Bethlehem in her time of trial ! 
The aliens, we may believe, were kind to her ; but 
in the night of sorrow there are no friends like 
home friends, especially those of our own kindred. 
Many drawings must her heart have felt to the old 
home; but for some reason, not here even sug- 
gested, the way thither was closed against her, and 
she remained some years longer in Moab — so long, 
indeed, that her sons seem almost to have given up 
the expectation of return, and married daughters of 
the land. Perhaps that, too, was a trial to Naomi ; 
but as throughout the story she acts always in a 
prudent way, it is certain that she would do so in 
this also. She did not break her head or her heart 
by rushing against the inevitable ; but accepting 
that which she could not prevent, she sought to 



RUTH THE GLEANER. 1 5 

make the best of it ; and she succeeded so well that 
her case stands out a perpetual protest against the 
silly, unfeeling, and, as I believe, unjust sneers that 
are so constantly thrown at the mother-in-law in the 
household. She and they dealt kindly and truly 
with each other, and so they grew into each other's 
confidence and affection. It is hard for a mother 
to see another come between her son and herself, 
and there is danger lest she should treat her as a 
usurper ; but the true specific for all such cases is 
that which Naomi and her sons' wives employed, 
the " dealing kindly and truly with " each other. 
Love is the universal solvent, especially when it is 
rooted in the common love of all to Christ, and 
when it manifests itself in mutual fidelity, not sim- 
ply in the dealing kindly, but also in the dealing 
truly with each other. 

But, alas, the happiness of the sons in their wives, 
and of the mother in her daughters-in-law, was not 
of long continuance, for ere long, perhaps owing to 
some inherited delicacy from their father, Mahlon 
and Chilion died, and so — how plaintive are the 
words employed — " the woman was left of her two 
sons and her husband." They had gone on and left 
her behind. Had they done so of deliberate purpose 
it had been cruel indeed, but they heard a voice 
which they could not choose but obey, and so they 
passed through the silent portal, leaving Naomi, 
Orpah, and Ruth on the outside. But they left God 
with them, and they were not bereaved of him. 



1 6 RUTH THE GLEANER. 

Still, it was a sad home. Three widows and no 
child, and, as it would seem also, no resources. Sor- 
row, solitude, and penury. Widowhood, woe, and 
want — a sad trinity, needing no words of mine 
to set it in distinctness before you. What was now 
to become of them ? As we follow the story we 
shall learn. 

Meanwhile let us conclude by pointing out how 
this brief paragraph illustrates the changeful nature 
of our earthly life. Elimelech seems to have been 
what we should call " well off " in Bethlehem, but 
he went to Moab for comfort, and there found 
only a grave, beside which, within a few years, were 
those of his two sons. Alas, what a change for 
Naomi ! And how often we see similar reverses in 
the families of those we know and love ! How of- 
ten, too, we observe that what men do for the im- 
provement of their circumstances ends in disaster ! 
Ah ! but we must not say ends, and there is the 
comfort of it all. You observe that we are here 
only at the beginning of the history, and when we 
get to the end we shall be better able to appreciate 
the nature of this discipline. For it was all under 
the control of God, who wished thereby not only to 
educate those^who were primarily concerned, but 
also through them to reach out into the Gentile na- 
tions, and bring back one who should not merely 
become a mother in Israel, but also part of the first- 
fruits of that Gentile harvest which the Messiah, in 
after-generations, was to reap. The very name of 



RUTH THE GLEANER. 1 7 

her husband might be a comfort to Naomi in all 
her distress, for when we can say " my God is King," 
or which comes to the same thing, " my times are 
in God's hands," we are sustained. The times may 
not be better, but we learn to look through them to 
the eternities, and to think that God is using the 
one for the surer gaining by us of the other, and 
that holds us up. It was a long look from the days 
of the Judges to those of Christ — at least, it would 
be a long look for us ; but already God was prepar- 
ing for the advent, and both Elimelech and Naomi 
were in a sense vicarious sufferers, in order that the 
world might be taught that the Messiah, coming as 
he did of a lineage in which are the names both of 
Rahab and of Ruth, was to be the Saviour of Gen- 
tiles as well as Jews. But for these bereavements 
this had not been taught — at least, through Ruth ; 
and so we Gentiles ought to look with peculiar ten- 
derness on these Israelitish graves in the land of 
Moab. Those who were buried in them died that 
Ruth might be redeemed, and Ruth is here the rep- 
resentative of the entire Gentile world. It is a pro- 
found mystery. Yet it is a comforting truth. 



II. 

RETURN AND RECEPTION. 
Chapter I., 6-22. 

The essence of home is in persons, not in local- 
ity. When, therefore, you have the presence and 
fellowship of those who are nearest and dearest to 
you, it is easy to be at home anywhere. But when 
the loved ones are gone, the fairest surroundings 
will not fill the void made by their absence. The 
heart then longs for that which strangers cannot 
give, and the old memories create a yearning for 
the old home of early days. It was natural, there- 
fore, that Naomi, after the death of her husband 
and her sons, should be drawn again towards Beth- 
lehem, so strongly that she determined to return 
thither. Forlorn, widowed, desolate, and destitute, 
she craved for that which Moab could not supply. 
A famine in the fields of Bethlehem took her to 
Moab ; but now a famine in the heart made her 
hunger after Bethlehem ; and having heard that 
" the Lord had visited his people in giving them 
bread," she arose to set out for her native place. 

But her daughters-in-law would not let her go 



RUTH THE GLEANER. 1 9 

alone. Apparently she did not request them to ac- 
company her, but of their own accord they chose 
to make the journey with her. This was equally 
honorable to her and them. Her life with them 
had been one of harmony and love. They had 
grown into her affection, and she had become dear 
to them. In the delicate relationship which sub- 
sisted between them, she had so conducted herself 
towards them, with reticence, with wisdom, and with 
kindness ; and they had so borne themselves tow- 
ards her, with deference, with reverence, and with 
affection, that they could not think of parting with 
her. So they insisted upon going with her, and for 
a time she permitted them to be her companions. 
But it was above all things necessary, in her judg- 
ment, that she should be honest with them, and 
therefore she determined to put fully before them 
the real state of the case. 

They knew little or nothing of the laws and cus- 
toms of the Jews, and thought, perhaps, that it might 
be as easy for them to get on in Bethlehem as it 
had been for her to get on in Moab. It was only 
just, therefore, that she should set before them as 
delicately and as clearly as possible the privations 
which they would have to face. Possibly there was 
an ordinance in Moab similar to the Levirate law 
which existed among the Israelites, in accordance 
with which when a man died without leaving a son, 
his brother, or, if he had no brother, his nearest 
male kinsman was under obligation to marry the 



20 RUTH THE GLEANER. 

widow, and the first-born son of such a marriage 
was to be reckoned the son of the deceased, that 
his name and lineage might be preserved. Now 
Naomi gives her daughters-in-law to understand 
that there was no hope of their obtaining husbands 
in that way, and her statement implies, though it 
does not express, that, since that was impossible, 
there would be for them no possibility of marrying 
at all. In these modern times, when there are so 
many avenues open for a woman's working for her 
own support, though there is need even of more 
than are at present in existence, that would not be 
reckoned by many in Ruth's and Orpah's circum- 
stances as a hardship. But in those early days it 
was quite different, for then, as Dr. Cassell tells us, 
"the position of a single woman was an unhappy 
one. It was altogether customary for youthful wid- 
ows to marry again. Only a husband's house was 
the true asylum for a woman." "^ 

Now Naomi informs her daughters-in-law that in 
Israel it would be impossible for them to get such 
a settlement. But she does it with the utmost tact 
and gentleness. First of all she bears unqualified 
testimony to their unfeigned kindness to their hus- 
bands and to herself, and that she may do it the 
more unreservedly and the more impressively, she 
turns it into a prayer, "Jehovah deal kindly with 
you, as ye have dealt with the dead, and with me." 

* Lange, in loco. 



RUTH THE GLEANER. 21 

Then she entreats them to return, each to the house 
of her own mother until, if Jehovah pleased, each 
should find rest in the house of her husband. And 
when, after she had kissed them, they still refused 
to comply with her request, saying, " Nay, but we 
will return with thee unto thy people," she let 
them see how hopeless it was that they should be 
provided for through the Levirate law, and by her 
silence regarding any other plan, she said more ex- 
pressively than she could have done by words, that 
there was no prospect of any such permanent home 
for them in Israel as either of them might easily 
find in Moab. All the while the tears fell fast from 
all their eyes, and most of all from hers who had 
seen the greatest sorrow, for she virtually says, It is 
far more bitter for me than for you, for the hand of 
the Lord hath gone out against me. Not, therefore, 
because she did not enjoy their fellowship, and did 
not desire their company, was she thus persistent. 
It was harder for her to part with them than it 
would be for them to part with her. If they went, 
never again would there be one beside her to call 
her mother, and she should go into the dreariest 
of solitudes, while they would be each in her moth- 
er's house, and might look forward to finding rest 
beneath a husband's roof. Hers would be the 
greater sacrifice if they went ; but she could not be 
so selfish as to allow them, simply on her account, 
to bring upon themselves the privations that were 
inevitably before them. 



2 2 RUTH THE GLEANER. 

The effect of this representation was so great on 
Orpah that, with whatever reluctance, she said fare- 
well, and went back to her kindred. But Ruth, true 
to the meaning of her name, would not be thus dis- 
missed. She was determined not to be outdone in 
sacrifice even by Naomi, and therefore she clave 
unto her mother-in-law. But not yet had Naomi 
told all that would be required if she went with 
her to Bethlehem. There was one other subject 
that must be spoken about ; and see with what 
adroitness of indirectness she suggested it to her 
daughter-in-law. She said, " Behold, thy sister-in- 
law is gone back unto her people and her gods ; re- 
turn after thy sister-in-law." Thus she reminded 
Ruth that if she went with her she would be leav- 
ing her gods. It was criminal to worship Chemosh 
in Judah, and she must well consider whether she 
could take a step that involved the sacrifice of her 
religion. She had come to a crossing in her life, 
where she must part either with Naomi or with the 
idolatry of Moab, and she must not make such a 
decision blindly, inconsiderately, and without count- 
ing the cost. 

But it did not take Ruth long to determine even 
that. Not for nothing had she lived beside Naomi, 
during her happy days of wifehood. She had seen 
in the Hebrew matron much that she had never 
witnessed in the homes of Moab. There were a 
purity, a meekness, an affection, and a though tful- 
ness for others about her, which made her feel that 



RUTH THE GLEANER. 2-3 

the religion which had brought out such qualities 
in her could not b.e bad ; and so her confidence in 
and admiration of Naomi made her willing to vent- 
ure herself with Naomi's Jehovah. It was not a 
very intelligent faith, indeed, but it was a real faith, 
like that which a child has in the Saviour of whom 
his mother tells. He loves the Saviour for his 
mother's sake, until at length he gets to love his 
mother for the Saviour's sake. It was said of 
Thomas Arnold, the great English educator, that 
he first gained the boys' confidence in himself, and 
then on the strength of that led them to confidence 
in Christ. So here Naomi had, unconsciously, by 
the silent eloquence of her character, led Ruth to 
confide in her; and then at the critical moment 
Ruth, through that confidence, was brought to de- 
cide for Jehovah, without faltering and without re- 
serve. Nay, so strong was her determination, and 
so fervent the love out of which it sprung, that it 
expressed itself in words which no poetry has out- 
rivalled and no pathos has exceeded, and which 
have come down through the centuries with a music 
that will not let them be forgotten. " Entreat me 
not to leave thee, or to return from following after 
thee : for whither thou goest I will go, and where 
thou lodgest I will lodge : thy people shall be my 
people, and thy God my God : where thou diest will 
I die, and there will I be buried : Jehovah do so to 
me and more also, if aught but death part thee and 
me." What could be more unqualified than that? 



24 RUTH THE GLEANER. 

She will share her journey and her lodging, her 
home and her heritage, her experiences in life and 
her grave at death. Nor was this all ; for not to be 
outdone by Naomi's delicacy, she will show that 
even already she was willing to forswear Chemosh, 
and therefore she takes an oath by Jehovah that 
nothing but death will ever part her from her fel- 
lowship. It was nobly promised, and it was as 
nobly performed; for the love that inspired the 
words was not like a thorn blaze which, bright for 
a moment, dies down into darkness, but rather like 
the glow of the sunshine, which lasts through all 
the day. There was no resisting an appeal of such 
a sort as that, and so Naomi, all the happier be- 
cause Ruth, while fully urjderstanding all that her 
decision involved, had not followed her advice, went 
with her gratefully and gladly forward towards her 
destination. 

When they arrived at Bethlehem the people of 
the city made a great stir, and said, " Is this Nao- 
mi ?" They recognized her as their old neighbor ; 
and yet they saw that she was greatly changed — so 
greatly that they could hardly believe that it was 
she after all. Then on Naomi's side, also, there 
must have been some misgivings about those who 
thronged around her. They saw the alterations in 
her, but they were all unconscious of those in them- 
selves. Ten years make deep marks in those over 
whom they pass, especially if they have reached the 
midtime of their lives ; and they who say, " How 



RUTH THE GLEANER. 2$ 

changed you are," to those who revisit home after 
a long absence, might well enough use the first per- 
sonal pronoun and include themselves in the ejacu- 
lation. But the external alterations are of small 
account. The more important changes are those 
which are not seen all at once ; and perhaps when 
we compare ourselves with what we were, in char- 
acter and experience long ago, we might each see 
reason to exclaim, " Is this really myself !" You 
may remember that very striking poem of Miss Proc- 
ter's in which she represents one in mature life 
looking at a portrait of herself that had been taken 
long years before, and moralizing over the contrast 
between then and now in a strain that concludes 
with these two lines : 

' ' And I marvel to see the stranger 
Who is living in me to-day." 

And so I think each of us may do. So at least Na- 
omi did. As her old neighbors called her by the 
old name in the old street, and said, " Is this Na- 
omi .?" She might have said, " Yes, I am changed, 
I know it ; but the deepest change is one you do 
not see, for my heart is heavy. Call me no more 
Naomi Q sweet '), for the Almighty hath dealt very 
bitterly with me. I went out full, and the Lord hath 
brought me home again empty : why call ye me Na- 
omi, seeing the Lord hath testified against me, and 
the Almighty hath afflicted me ?" 

It was very sad. But the saddest thing was that 

2 



26 RUTH THE GLEANER. 

the Bethlehemites made no response to her sorrow. 
Had she come back with pomp and glory and riches 
they would have made much of her ; for the world 
always fawns upon prosperity, and those who need 
least of its attentions get the most. But Naomi's 
account of her circumstances seems to have damped 
the ardor of the welcome given her by her old neigh- 
bors. None of them invited her home, or offered 
her hospitality. She was too poor now to be ac- 
knowledged in that way; and after the first ex- 
pressions of surprise at her appearance, they let 
her severely alone. Nobody proffered her assist- 
ance. Some might even criticise and say, " She did 
not know when she was well. If she had only stayed 
among her own kindred, she might have been as 
full as ever. But she would go. . She made her own 
bed and she must lie on it now, hard as it is. And 
whatever possessed her to bring that young Moab- 
itish woman with her, only to add to her burden, 
and make her perplexity the greater ?" Ah, we 
known all about it. The rich have many friends ; 
but they who come home empty from afar, come 
home full often to coldness and averted looks. Still 
Naomi with all her sadness had a brave, believing 
heart, and as she looked down upon the ripened 
barley falling before the reaper in the fields be- 
neath, she would be reminded of Him who has put 
for His people the rainbow of His covenant into ev- 
ery cloud of trial. 

Now, returning over this deeply pathetic narra- 



RUTH THE CxLEANER. 27 

tive, we may learn to recognize God's hand in every- 
thing. It is noteworthy how constantly Naomi did 
that. Look over the verses that have to-night been 
before us, and you will be greatly struck with the 
frequency with which this feature of her piety pre- 
sents itself. She had heard "that the Lord had 
visited his people in giving them bread." She said 
that "the hand of the Lord had gone out against 
her," and again, that " the Lord had testified against 
her, and the Almighty had afflicted her." It is not 
likely that she either undervalued or overlooked 
secondary causes, but she believed that God was in 
and over all these causes, working out His own pur- 
poses through their operation. And she recognized 
in all that came upon her the will of God concern- 
ing her. No doubt she was wrong in supposing 
that Jehovah was acting bitterly towards her, but 
in that she erred with Jacob when he cried, "All 
these things are against me." On the other hand, 
she was not wrong in believing that the Providence 
of God is in and over all events, and it were well 
for us if we realized that truth. How this univer- 
sal providence can be maintained without interfer- 
ing either with the uniformity of the workings of 
what men call the laws of nature, or with the free 
agency of man, it may be impossible for us to ex- 
plain ; but that it is maintained I take to be es- 
tablished both by the testimony of history in gen- 
eral, and of individual experience in particular. 
And if we believe the words of Jesus, when He says 



28 RUTH THE GLEANER. 

that the hairs of our heads are numbered, and that 
a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without our 
Father, we cannot hesitate to accept the doctrine, 
whatever mystery there may be about the mode of 
the divine operation. 

Now, accepting that doctrine, we have in it an 
antidote both to pride in the time of prosperity, and 
to despondency in the season of adversity. For if 
prosperity comes, it comes from God; and if ad- 
versity befalls us, it has been sent from God ; and 
since He is love, and has shown that love by the 
sacrifice of His Son upon the Cross, we may be 
sure that if we are His people in Christ, He cannot 
mean anything but love to us, whatever He may 
permit to come upon us. Naomi, therefore, was 
not wrong in tracing all her changes in condition 
to God, but she erred in ascribing any bitterness 
to God in His treatment of her. The father loves 
the child as really when he administers the disa- 
greeable medicine which is to recover him from 
disease as when he is dandling him upon his 
knees. The only difference is in the manner in 
which the love is shown, and that is accounted for 
by the differences in the circumstances of the child. 
In like manner adversity, how bitter soever it may 
be, is a manifestation of God's love to us, designed 
for our ultimate and highest welfare. Now this may 
well reconcile us to trial. I say reconcile us to it. 
It will not make the trial less, but it will help us to 
bear it, just as the wounded man is braced for the 



RUTH THE GLEANER. 29 

amputation of a limb, when he is told that it is in- 
dispensable if his life is to be preserved. There is 
a " needs be " for every affliction, otherwise it would 
not come upon us under the providence of a God 
of love ; and He sends it not in bitterness to us, but 
as the necessary means of "making perfect that 
which concerneth us." 

Then if He send prosperity, we owe that to His 
favor rather than to our own ability; or if in any 
sense we owe it to our own ability, then that ability 
is itself His gift. So our faith in that view of the 
case will keep us from self-conceit. Thus the true 
believer in God's universal providence, if his faith 
in that doctrine be intelligent, is preserved alike 
from pride and haughtiness of heart in fulness, and 
from despair in emptiness. That doctrine is to the 
Christian's heart what a compensation balance is to 
a chronometer, and gives him equanimity in all 
conditions, so that he can sing : 

" Father, I know that all my life is portioned out by Thee, 
And the changes that are sure to come I do not fear to 
see." 

and all his desire is so to possess his soul, that he 
may fall in with God's plan, and do always the 
things which please Him. Naomi did not all at 
once attain to that spirit, but she came to it at 
length, and we may accept the conclusion at which 
she ultimately arrived, as the premises from which 
we ought to reason. Why should we repeat either 



30 RUTH THE GLEANER. 

Jacob's unbelief or hers, when we see how kindly 
that was rebuked and condemned in both cases, by 
the result of that process the course of which so 
deeply distressed them ? " Rest in the Lord, wait 
patiently for Him." Let Him finish His work in 
you before you presume to say that He is dealing 
bitterly with you or testifying against you, for this 
is one instance in which the otherwise most ques- 
tionable doctrine is true, that " the end justifies the 
means," and when you get to the end, you will ex- 
claim, " He hath done all things well." 

But as a second lesson from this simple story 
we may learn the duty of absolute frankness in our 
dealings with each other. Naomi could not think 
of taking her daughters-in-law with her without tell- 
ing them what was before them. If she had not 
done this, and they had gone with her, then on their 
first experience of hardship they might have up- 
braided her for her selfishness and cruelty ; so she 
put everything, delicately, indeed, yet fairly, before 
them. She told them the worst, so that if they 
went with her and had to endure that, they might 
never say that she had painted things all too rosily. 
If they were to be disappointed at all, she preferred 
that it should be in finding things better and not 
worse than she had indicated. Now, this is a mat- 
ter of great importance, which is not, I fear, suf- 
ficiently considered by most people. When two 
parties are in negotiation, usually one of them is 
bent simply and only on success. He wishes, like 



RUTH THE GLEANER. 3 1 

an advocate, to gain his cause, and exaggerates all 
that tells for his side, keeping out of view altogether 
or depreciating everything against it; and the re- 
sult, if he carries his point, is sure to be disappoint- 
ment and estrangement. Some time ago certain 
parties in the old country were induced, through 
flattering, and, indeed, lying descriptions, to pur- 
chase some lands in Florida, and when they came 
out to take possession they found there nothing 
but bare and barren sand. Can you wonder that 
they exclaimed against the deceitfulness of Ameri- 
cans in general, and Florida land-agents in particu- 
lar? But while we condemn such rascality as that, 
are we so sure that our own hands are clean ? 
There is an old Roman maxim. Caveat emptor — 
" Let the buyer look after himself " — which has al- 
ways seemed to me to have the rankest dishonesty 
beneath it, and which, I fear, is too often acted upon 
even among ourselves. Now, if we are going to 
sell anything, let us sell it for what it is, and not 
for what we know that it is not. If the buyer is 
mistaken, let us show him his mistake, even if we 
should at present lose money thereby ; for if we 
do not, we shall not only do a dishonest act, but 
we shall lose him for a customer. It looks very 
" smart " to take advantage of the ignorance of him 
with whom you are dealing, but if you do, he will 
be " smart " enough never to give you the chance 
again, and if you go on in that way your business 
will very soon be at an end. The open, frank 



32 RUTH THE GLEANER. 

truthful policy, even as a policy, is always best ; 
but it is more than a policy, it is a duty, and that 
cannot be evaded without sin. 

Nor is it only in business that we need to imi- 
tate Naomi's frankness with her daughters-in-law. 
We ought to act on the same principle, also, in the 
church. If a congregation eagerly desires a cer- 
tain man for a pastor, the members should set 
everything fairly before him, and he should be 
equally open and above-board with them. He 
ought not to impose on them with a few showy 
sermons, which he has elaborated for the captivat- 
ing of the multitude, and they ought not to cover 
up everything that is difficult or disagreeable among 
them. Thus neither will be disappointed in the 
other. And, in general, if we see a friend bent 
upon a course of any sort under an entire misap- 
prehension of what the consequence shall be, we 
ought, in justice to ourselves and in faithfulness to 
him, to put before him with all delicateness, yet 
v/ith absolute truthfulness, that which he will have 
to face. Then if he will he will, but we, at least, 
have endeavored to secure that he should know 
what he is doing. 

In this connection who can forget the absolute 
honesty of the Lord Jesus Christ in His invitations 
to men to become His disciples ? He promised 
them rest, indeed, but it was rest to their souls, and 
He never kept out of view the difficulties which 
they would have to encounter if they sought to act 



RUTH THE GLEANER. 33 

on His principles. Here are the terms of disciple- 
ship as laid down by Himself : " If any man be 
willing to come after Me, let him renounce self and 
take up his cross daily and follow Me ;" and, as you 
remember, he exhorted some who were more senti- 
mental than serious to sit down and count the cost, 
lest, having put their hands to the plough, they 
should look back and so prove unv/orthy of Him. 
Now, that procedure of our Lord is valuable not 
only as teaching inquirers what they must expect 
if they become His disciples, but also as an exam- 
ple to us all to deal with absolute honesty and 
frankness with all with whom we have any negotia- 
tions, and sure I am that if we all did so there 
would be fewer criminations and recriminations 
between those who ought to dwell in harmony and 
love. It cost Naomi a good deal to say what she 
did to her daughters-in-law, but it would have cost 
her more if she had allowed Orpah to go forward 
blindfold to Bethlehem, for v/hen the eye-opening 
came there would have been a painful rupture, fol- 
lowed, perhaps, by constant embitterment. 

But a third lesson from this narrative is the value 
of decision. Look at these words : " When she saw 
that she was steadfastly minded to go with her, she 
left off speaking unto her." Ruth's firmness put a 
stop to Naomi's entreaties. And it is the same al- 
ways. When Paul laould go up to Jerusalem, de- 
spite the tears of his friends, they ceased their im- 
portunity and said, " The will of the Lord be done." 
2* 



34 RUTH THE GLEANER. 

And if a man is seen to be decided in his stand for 
Christ, antagonists will give over assaihng him. 
There is nothing in the use of which men are more 
discriminating than entreaty, argument, or influence. 
So long as the object of their solicitude is wavering 
they will bring all their batteries to bear upon him, 
for there is still the hope that he will yield. But 
when he comes openly and determinedly out for 
Christ they will waste no more ammunition on him. 
They leave him thenceforth alone, and attack some 
one else. Thus decision, while it may require an 
effort to make it, is, after it is made, a safeguard 
against assault. The attack is reserved for those 
who are yet undecided, but the decision silences all 
further importunity. So long as a vessel has no 
flag at her mast-head, the sea-robber may think it 
safe to attack her ; but let her hoist the flag of this 
nation, and that will make the assailant pause. In 
like manner, the hoisting over us of the banner 
of the Cross, being a symbol of decision, is also 
an assurance of protection. Up with it then, my 
hearer, and keep it up ; for while it shows that you 
have decided to be His, it places you also under 
His divine protection, and there you are secure. 
Take your stand — manfully, prayerfully, and deter- 
minedly ; and when others see that you have done 
so they will let you alone. 

Finally. This story shows us the difference be- 
tween mere amiability and devotion. Orpah was a 
good, kindly-dispositioned woman, thoroughly amia- 



RUTH THE GLEANER. 35 

ble, very friendly to Naomi, but not willing to make 
the greatest sacrifice for her. When it came to the 
point where she had to choose between the utter 
sacrifice of herself for Naomi and the return to her 
mother's house, then, amiable as she was, she went 
back to Moab. But Ruth's devotion was self-for- 
getting, and, at whatever sacrifice, she would go 
with Naomi to Bethlehem. Now, without pronounc- 
ing any condemnation on Orpah, I may take these 
two widowed sisters as types of two classes in their 
relation to Christ. On the one hand there are some 
who allege that they are not opposed to the gospel. 
On the whole they rather think well of it. They 
attend its ordinances. Up to a certain point they 
are its friends. But after a time they come to a 
fork in the road, where they must either part with 
Christ and His salvation or give up some heart- 
idolatry which they have long cherished ; and there 
they halt. They are not w^illing to give that up 
even for Him. They have amiability, but not de- 
votion — their centre is self, not Christ. But there 
are others who will follow the Lord no matter at 
what cost or sacrifice ; for it is the Lord they are 
thinking of and devoted to, not self. Now to which 
of these two classes do you belong? Are you un- 
willing to renounce self for Christ ? Then let the 
words of Ruth determine you. Cleave fast to Christ. 
He is going to a glorious land — the home of joy and 
love. His lodging is a chamber whose window open- 
eth towards the sunrising, the name of which is 



$6 RUTH THE GLEANER. 

Peace. His people are a happy people ; His God is 
a faithful God ; His death is a victorious death ; His 
burial is a hopeful burial, to be followed by a glorious 
resurrection. There is not another of whom these 
things can be said with truth — therefore cleave to 
Him through good report and through evil report, 
and He will give you an abundant entrance into 
His Father's house on high. 



III. 

GLEANING. 
Chapter II. 1-17. 

Things were at the lowest ebb with Naomi. She 
had used no mere figure of speech when she said 
that the Lord had "brought her home empty," for 
she was literally destitute of the means of support. 
Something, therefore, had to be done at once to 
meet the emergency, and Ruth proved herself equal 
to the occasion. It was the beginning of barley 
harvest, and the sight of the reapers at work, with 
the gleaners following them, suggested to her what 
she would do. She, too, would become a gleaner, 
for Naomi's sake. But she would do nothing with- 
out Naomi's sanction, and, therefore, she came to 
her with this request : " Let me now go to the field 



RUTH THE GLEANER. 37 

and glean ears of corn after him in whose sight I 
shall find grace," What thoughtful delicacy ! what 
excellent wisdom ! what energy of promptitude have 
we here ! She did not wait until Naomi asked 
whether she could not help in some way to keep 
the wolf from the door, but, identifying herself 
thoroughly with her mother-in-law, and recognizing 
the necessity for exertion, she resolutely rose to the 
emergency and determined to do what she could for 
their common maintenance. Nor was she scrupu- 
lous as to the sort of industry in which she should 
engage. It might be true that she had been in 
comfortable circumstances, and had never needed 
to do any kind of out-door work while her husband 
lived ; but she accepted the situation now, and was 
willing to do anything, however lov/ly, if only it were 
honest, for her own and her mother's livelihood. 
She did not dictate to Providence, or say that if she 
could get this or that she would take it, but she 
could never bring her self to do that other. Rather 
she was willing to take any honorable course that 
might open to her, and, as gleaning was the first 
that presented itself, she would take that, unless 
Naomi objected. 

It is always hard for those who have been in 
comfort and are reduced to destitution to bring 
themselves to this willinghood to take what offers, 
and perhaps it was easier for Ruth to act on such 
a determination in Bethlehem than it would have 
been in Moab, among those who had known her 



38 RUTH THE GLEANER. 

when she was better off. But in all cases, that 
is the surest way out of penury, and the sooner 
it is taken the shorter is the road. Naomi was 
well aware of that, we may be sure, and, there- 
fore, with unexpressed admiration of the common- 
sense and what I may call the "pluck" of Ruth, 
and with silent gratitude to God for this manifesta- 
tion of her self-sacrificing love, she put no obstacle 
in her v/ay, but said to her heartily and with ap- 
proval, " Go, my daughter." 

The field to which Ruth went, though apparently 
one large and undivided area, was really made up 
of the aggregate portions of land possessed by those 
who dwelt in Bethlehem. Just as, even at the pres- 
ent day, in some parts of Switzerland, the agricult- 
ural population live in villages round which their 
several patches of land lie — not cut up by hedges or 
fenced off by stone walls — but forming what appears 
to be one immense field, though it is actually very 
carefully mapped out and divided by landmarks 
which are perfectly recognizable by the inhabitants 
themselves ; so it was, long ago, in Bethlehem. To 
a casual visitor there would seem to be but one field, 
but yet the portion of each proprietor was marked 
sometimes by heaps of small stones, and sometimes 
by single upright stones placed at short but regular 
intervals from each other. This enables us to un- 
derstand the precept against the removal of a neigh- 
bor's landmark, and explains why in the narrative 
before us the word " field " is in the singular, and 



RUTH THE GLEANER. 39 

why it is said that Ruth found her place of privilege 
in the " part of the field which belonged to Boaz." 
In the law of Moses we find the following ordi- 
nances regarding gleaning : " When ye reap the har- 
vest of your land, thou shalt not wholly reap the 
corners of thy field ; neither shalt thou gather the 
gleanings of thy harvest ; and thou shalt not glean 
thy vineyard, neither shalt thou gather every grape 
of thy vineyard ; thou shalt leave them for the poor 
and stranger : I am the Lord your God.'"* Again, 
" When ye reap the harvest of your land thou shalt 
not make clean riddance of the corners of thy field 
when thou reapest; neither shalt thou gather any 
gleaning of thy harvest ; thou shalt leave them unto 
the poor and to the stranger : I am the Lord your 
God."t And once more ; " When thou cuttest down 
thine harvest in thy field, and hast forgot a sheaf 
in the field, thou shalt not go again to fetch it ; it 
shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for 
the widow ; that the Lord thy God may bless thee 
in all the work of thine hands. "$ There was no 
money tax levied in Israel for the relief of the poor, 
and so this provision was made for them. The land- 
holders were never to remove everything from their 
fields, but were always to leave something for the 
stranger and the destitute. But while this series of 
laws required the proprietors of the soil to remember 
the poor, it did not give indiscriminate right to the 

* Lev. xix., 9-10. f Lev. xxiii. , 22. :}: Dfiut. xxiv., ig. 



40 RUTH THE GLEANER. 

destitute to go where they pleased and gather what 
they could find. That would have led to great 
abuses. The forward and obtrusive among those 
who were in want would then have carried off the 
lion's share ; while the timid and shrinking and sen- 
sitive ones would have been left out in the cold. 
And again, there might have been a run upon some 
particular fields to the almost entire neglect of 
others, and so there would have been unequal 
pressure upon the different proprietors. Therefore, 
while the right of the poor to glean was clearly se- 
cured, the exercise of that right by them was regu- 
lated by requiring that the gleaner should obtain 
permission from the proprietor or his representative 
before beginning operations. So when she reached 
the field, Ruth, being attracted in the providence 
of God, either by the kindly countenance of the 
steward or by the appearance of the maidens who 
were working under his superintendence, to Boaz's 
section of the land, went and made request of " the 
man who was set over the reapers," saying, " I pray 
you let me glean and gather after the reapers among 
the sheaves," and the favor so modestly asked was 
willingly granted. 

But how came Ruth to be able to make herself 
intelligible to this steward ? The question is natu- 
ral, for she was d. Gentile and had only a few days 
before arrived in Bethlehem. But the answer has 
been furnished by the inscription on the Moabite 
Stone, which was discovered in 1868, and which 



RUTH THE GLEANER. 4 1 

has proved that there was little difference between 
the Moabitish and Hebrew languages. The dis- 
tinguishing peculiarities in each were mainly dia- 
lectic — like the provincialisms prevailing in differ- 
ent parts of England ; but beneath these there was 
a common vernacular intelligible to both. There- 
fore we need not wonder that Ruth could converse 
so fluently and intelligently with the people of 
Bethlehem. 

But it is now nearing noonday, and yonder is 
the proprietor himself, coming to look after his 
servants. Let us attentively regard him, for he is 
well worthy of our notice, not only because he will 
become a principal actor in our little drama, but 
also because he is a worthy specimen of the people 
to whom he belongs and of the class which he rep- 
resents. He is described in the first verse of our 
chapter as " a mighty man of wealth," but it is 
questionable if that expression fairly represents the 
original. The phrase is identical with that which 
is elsewhere rendered " a mighty man of valor," 
and only in one other place is it translated as here, 
" a mighty man of wealth." Some, therefore, have 
supposed that he was a great warrior, and others 
have leaned to the idea that he was merely a man 
of wealth. But in these early days, especially un- 
der the rule of the Judges, when hostile inroads on 
the chosen people were so frequently made by un- 
friendly neighbors, the man who had great posses- 
sions was in a manner compelled to be also a mill- 



42 RUTH THE GLEANER. 

tary leader ; and so we may very justly combine the 
two meanings, and speak of him as a valiant man 
and a wealthy; or, as Dr. J. Morison has para- 
phrased the expression, " a strong and substantial 
yeoman." His name was Boaz, which signifies 
either strength or agility ; or, according to some 
others, prosperousness, and he was, as the chapter 
tells us, a kinsman of Elimelech, belonging, indeed, 
to the same "family." The word translated kins- 
man here means primarily " an acquaintance," but 
as the closest acquaintances are ordinarily kins- 
folk, it came to signify a relation. What the de- 
gree of relationship between Boaz and Elimelech 
was we are not distinctly informed. We shall find 
before the close of the story that he was not the 
nearest of kin, but that he was a near kinsman, 
and the rabbis — without, however, giving an atom 
of evidence in support of their assertion — have af- 
firmed that he was Elimelech's nephew, and there- 
fore the first cousin of Ruth's husband. Note, in 
passing, the minute providence which led Ruth to 
the part of the field which belonged to this man. 
She knew nothing of his relationship to her hus- 
band j it had even escaped the recollection of Na- 
omi, until she had it brought back to her memory 
in the evening by Ruth's report of the day's pro- 
ceedings. But, all unconsciously to herself, she 
was drawn to the very place out of which her help 
was to come. The record says, " Her hap was to 
light upon " the Boaz part of the field, or, as it 



RUTH THE GLEANER. 43 

might be more literally rendered, " Her hap hap- 
pened," "her lot met her." But the historian 
would not have us to believe that it was all by- 
chance. On the contrary, the great lesson of the 
book is that " the Lord is mindful of His own," and 
that He leads them through ways that they know 
not, to the end which He has designed for them. 
But the writer speaks here after the manner of 
men. He describes all that men see. They cannot 
trace the workings of the divine hand ; they per- 
ceive only what takes place before their eyes; and 
so he says here of Ruth that "her hap happened," 
"her lot met her," "her hap was to light" on the 
part of the field belonging to Boaz, but he means 
every reader to infer that God had turned her steps 
thither. 

But listen, as Boaz comes along to join his band, 
he cries to them, " The Lord be with you." Mark 
the courtesy of this great man. He is not above 
speaking kindly to his workmen. He does not hold 
himself stiffly aloof from them. He does not or- 
der them about with haughty indifference, as if he 
were speaking to an inferior order of beings. No, 
no ; they, too, belong to the chosen people. All 
alike are children of Abraham. All alike are in- 
cluded in the covenant. They are all members of 
the same spiritual household, and so he treats 
them with respectful kindness. 

Mark, again, his piety. He cries, '^The Lord be 
with 5^ou." Now, I know that this has become the 



44 RUTH THE GLEANER. 

common salutation in the East, for Dr. Thomson 
tells us that " The Lord be with you " is merely 
the " Allah m'akum " of ordinary custom. I am 
well aware, also, that by frequent use, even such 
expressions of piety come to be employed without 
any pious feeling, and often even by those who 
have no faith in God at all. How seldom do v/e 
think of God when we say "good-bye," which is 
simply " God be with you !" It is possible that 
even infidels and atheists may take leave of each 
other with that word, and without any conscious- 
ness of inconsistency in so making use of it. So it 
is possible that Boaz simply meant to be courteous 
when he used this salutation, and that there was no 
more piety in it than there is in a modern "good- 
bye." It is possible, but not very probable, for, as 
we shall see in the future, this man was in the habit 
of tracing all blessings to God, and of commending 
those whom he loved to the care of God, and there- 
fore in his mouth the ordinary salutation was re- 
stored from its common colorlessness to its first 
uncommon piety, and meant everything which it 
had originally expressed. 

But this salutation was no mere one-sided thing. 
The reapers answered, "The Lord bless thee." 
They did not look askance upon their employer, as 
if he had been their natural enemy. They recog- 
nized that in his prosperity they would prosper, and 
that in his adversity they could not but be sufferers 
with him ; and therefore they reciprocated his cour- 



RUTH THE GLEANER. 45 

tesy, and followed his prayer for them by their 
prayers for him. It is a beautiful sight. One feels 
almost as if he were transported three thousand 
years back to Bethlehem, and saw it all before his 
eyes. The portly proprietor coming with stately 
dignity along to his own plot of the field, and kind- 
ly saluting the laborers in Jehovah's name ; the 
reapers lifting themselves up simultaneously from 
their constrained position, each with the sweat on 
his face and the sickle in his hand, returning the 
salutation with hearty affection : " An intercourse 
this," as William Arnot says, "between rich and 
poor, between master and servant, which we love 
to think of in those patriarchal times, which we 
weep the want of in our own."* 

As Boaz glances over the band, he sees a stran- 
ger among the gleaners. But though he is struck 
with her appearance, and interested to inquire con- 
cerning her — for in a small community like that of 
Bethlehem the appearance of a new-comer would 
always awaken curiosity — yet he does not make im- 
mediate inquiry concerning her. With a delicate- 
ness which seems to have been more common in 
those times than it is in some circles among our- 
selves, he waited until Ruth had gone for rest into 
the hut which had been erected for the shelter of 
the work-people from the sun, and then in her ab- 

* The Race for Riches ^ and some of the Pits into which the 
Runners fall. By William Arnot, pp. i, 2. Edinburgh, 

1852. 



46 RUTH THE GLEANER. 

sence he said to his steward, "What damsel is 
this?" In response the man told Ruth's story, 
either as he had himself became acquainted with it 
from common report, or as it had come out in his 
conversation with her in the morning, and said, "It 
is the Moabitish damsel that came back with Nao- 
mi out of the country of Moab, and she said, I pray 
you, let me glean and gather after the reapers among 
the sheaves ; so she came and hath continued even 
from the morning until now that she tarried a little 
in the house." On receiving this information Boaz, 
probably from his kinship to Naomi, perhaps, also, 
from a deeper and more subtle cause, became in- 
terested in Ruth. Calling her to him by the kindly 
name of daughter, which indicated at once his age 
and her youth, and his tender regard for her, he re- 
quested her to do all her gleaning on his land, and 
to keep fast by his maidens, who would give to her 
the companionship and protection that always come 
to a woman from the presence with her of those of 
her own sex. He told her that he had ordered the 
young men to treat her with civility and respect, 
and not to subject her to the rough horse -play 
which was so common on the harvest-field, and he 
gave her the right to quench her thirst at the ves- 
sels which the young men had drawn — perhaps 
from the well for the water of which David so longed 
at a later day — for the benefit of all the laborers. 
This considerate treatment at the hand of a stran- 
ger went straight to the heart of Ruth, who fell at 



RUTH THE GLEANER. 47 

the feet of her benefactor, saying, "Why have I 
found grace in thine eyes, that thou shouldest take 
knowledge of me, seeing I am a stranger ?" But in 
response he gave her to understand that her whole 
recent history was familiar to him ; and the man- 
ner in which he dwells upon its details seems to re- 
veal that he had been deeply impressed with them. 
Indeed, as he enumerates them it appears as if he 
was gathering intensity as he proceeded, until he 
could find no relief for his feelings save in the 
prayer, so simple, so beautiful, so comprehensive, 
so appropriate, " The Lord recompense thy work, 
and a full reward be given thee of the Lord God of 
Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust." 
There is no conventionality about that. Such a sup- 
plication could come only from a pious heart, as 
well as from a kindly disposition, and Ruth was 
equally sincere when she said, "Thou hast com- 
forted me, and thou hast spoken to the heart of 
thine handmaid, though I be not like unto one of 
thine handmaidens." " Alas ! no," as if she had 
added, " but only a widow and a stranger." 

But now the hour for refreshment has come, and 
Boaz invites her to partake of the food which had 
been prepared for his laborers. This consisted of 
"parched corn," which, according to Dr. Thomson, 
was prepared thus : " A quantity of the best ears, 
not too ripe, are plucked wdth the stalks attached. 
These are tied in small parcels, a blazing fire is 
kindled with dry grass and thorn - bushes, and the 



48 RUTH THE GLEANER. 

corn heads are held in it until the chaff is mostly 
burned off. When the grain is sufficiently roasted 
it is rubbed out in the hand and eaten as there is 
occasion." * But Dr. Robinson describes another 
method. He says : " In the season of harvest the 
grains of wheat not yet fully dry and hard are 
roasted in a pan or on an iron plate, and con- 
stitute a very palatable article of food, which is 
eaten with bread or instead of it." f Of this Ruth 
ate and was sufficed, and left, or rather "had some- 
thing over," which, as we shall see, she carried 
home in the evening to Naomi. Besides this, she 
" dipped her morsel in the vinegar," which was a 
mixture of vinegar and water with a little oil, into 
which each reaper dipped his bread before eating. 
It was genuine open-air hospitality — a picnic, with 
the added zest of labor to give it flavor, and the 
joy of harvest to give it gladness. I have seen and 
shared in similar feasts many a time in the har- 
vest-fields of the west of Scotland, and there is a 
spontaneity in all such mirthfulness that contrasts 
most suggestively with the manufactured cheerful- 
ness of a mere " garden-party." 

When the simple meal was over, Boaz lingered 
behind to tell his young men to let Ruth glean, if 
she would, even among the sheaves, without re- 
proach, and to bid them let fail purposely a few 
handfuls, that she might, without any loss of self- 

* The Land and the Book, English edition, p. 648. 
f Biblical Researches, vol. ii., p. 50. 



RUTH THE GLEANER. 49 

respect or without any feeling of undue depend- 
ence, obtain all the more from her work. Here, 
again, we mark the delicateness to which we have 
already so frequently referred. Many men spoil a 
kindness by the clumsy way in which they do it ; 
but Boaz secured here that a good service should 
be rendered to Ruth, even when most she felt that 
she was helping herself. He contrived that her 
gleanings should be increased, while yet she did 
not know that they were not all the product of her 
own industry. So when the even was come, and 
she beat out with a stick the grain from the ears 
which she had gathered, she found that she had 
taken home to Naomi nearly a bushel of barley. 

But now, leaving for another discourse the report 
which Ruth gave to Naomi of her day's experiences 
when she went home in the evening, let us take 
with us some' practical lessons for our modern life 
from this deeply interesting story. 

See, then, in the first place, how a change of cir- 
cumstances reveals character. What an unveiling 
of Ruth's real nature her poverty made ! Had she 
been always prosperous we had never thoroughly 
known her, and Naomi might never have discov- 
ered the nobleness that was in her. The purity 
of the diamond was made manifest by the cutting 
to which it was subjected. It is not always thus, 
however. Sometimes reverse of fortune brings out 
hardness, cynicism, almost misanthropy ; and those 
who seemed in prosperity to be no worse than the 
3 



50 RUTH THE GLEANER. 

average of their neighbors, develop under adver- 
sity into miserable, discontented, suspicious, and 
uncharitable people who have not a good word to 
say of anybody, and are at war with themselves, 
with their neighbors, and with God himself. But 
that is only because from the first they have been 
wrong. When they had their prosperity they did 
not thank God for it, but traced it to that in them- 
selves which enabled them to rise in spite of those 
around them ; but now in their adversity, strangely 
enough, they cast the blame on others and on God, 
and they are so bitter in their feelings that they 
cannot bring themselves to do even that which 
offers for their own support. Alas for such! they 
put it almost out of the power of others to assist 
them, and, wrapped in their own stolid defiance, 
they are like the man in the river who cried out, 
"I will be drowned, and nobody shall help me." 
I know few more pitiable objects than those whose 
misfortunes have thus petrified them, and I pray 
God to keep us all from such a spirit as they mani- 
fest. But the finer the nature is originally, the 
more nobly does it come out when the individual 
is required to " take a lower room " at the world's 
banquet. Beautifully has it been said here by a 
young English preacher, whose early death was a 
deep sorrow to all who knew him : " The widow 
who, when bereavement has changed all her fort- 
unes, goes forth to earn her children's bread with 
her own hands ; the daughter who, once accustomed 



RUTH THE GLEANER. 5 1 

to all that wealth could purchase and the doubtful 
privilege of unbroken ease, turns her accomplish- 
ments into a means of support for her aged father ; 
these, and such as these, reveal in new circum- 
stances nev/ graces — graces that are sturdy virtues, 
that shine with an unborrowed splendor, and are 
beautiful in the sight of Heaven. There has been 
no humiliation in all this ; the brave toilers have 
made the worst drudgery sublime, and they have 
risen to a grander dignity than all the world's worth 
could confer. Their friends and neighbors may 
have considered it misfortune, and may call it the 
Valley of Humiliation ; yet though, like Christian, 
they have met an Apollyon there, they, too, have 
seen visions of angels, and lifted their voices in 
happy song. Ah ! there are compensations even in 
this world of which we little dream, and God sets 
one thing, and often a better thing, over against 
another in human life. Riches fly, but character 
is developed ; we are compelled to work, and out 
of work spring our truest joys. Our life is para- 
doxical but without contradictions ; we are made 
the least that we may become the greatest ; and the 
way down is, with God as guide, always the road to 
exaltation."* 

But although the change in Ruth's circumstances 
here was from comfort to penury, I cannot help 
adding that there is a similar revealing power, so 

* The Beautiful Gleaner. By Rev. William Braden, pp. 
52, 53- 



52 RUTH THE GLEANER. 

far as character is concerned, in a sudden rise from 
poverty to affluence. Sometimes that, as in the 
case of Hazael, has shown a hard, ambitious cruelty 
in a man, in whom the existence of such a disposi- 
tion was never even suspected. The getting has 
developed selfishness rather than liberality, and 
the possession of power has given opportunity for 
its arbitrary exercise. Then again, in others it 
has seemed to sweeten them, and to bring out 
kindliness. It all depends on the character of the 
person to begin with, and that again depends on 
the relationship between him and God in Christ. 
So, if we would be prepared for anything that God's 
providence may bring us ; if we would not be in- 
jured in that which is our truest self, either by sud- 
den prosperity or by unexpected misfortune, we 
need to look well to our piety ; we need to cultivate 
close and intimate fellowship with God ; we need 
to have the equalizing influence within us of the 
indwelling of the Holy Spirit; we need, in one ex- 
pressive phrase, to have the soul ballasted with 
Christ, and then no sudden squall or change of 
wind, whether from affluence to poverty or from 
poverty to affluence, will endanger or submerge us. 
Either prosperity or adversity will capsize us without 
Him, but with Him in the boat beside us we are 
always safe. 

But now in the second place let us see in the 
fellowship between Boaz and his reapers, a finger- 
post pointing to the true solution of all difficulties 



RUTH THE GLEANER. 53 

between employers and employed. We have heard 
and read a great deal on that subject in these recent 
days. Indeed, little else has been discussed among 
us of late, either in the newspapers or in private 
conversation or in public discourse. For the pres- 
ent, indeed, we have reason to congratulate our- 
selves that the premature explosion of that bomb in 
Chicago* has opened the eyes of the community to 
the danger that is involved to our property and civ- 
ilization from the occurrence of such troubles, and 
unified the sentiment of the nation as to the manner 
in which that kind of warfare is to be dealt with. 
But the real question lies back behind the violence 
to which all strikes seem to be near of kin ; and the 
anarchism which in all our large cities is so ready 
to take advantage, for its own infamous purposes, of 
any disorder that may arise and for which the work- 
ing-men, as a class, are not to be held responsible. 
The real question is this : How may the state of 
feeling between employers and employed, which is 
so apt to break out into open antagonism, be re- 
moved and permanently made impossible ? Why is 
it that every little difference between them as to 
wages or hours of labor leads on to strikes and bitter 
estrangement ? How comes it that the labor atmos- 
phere is so explosive and electric ? And what shall 
be done in the way of remedy } Now when — apart 
from recent provoking manifestations, which, for the 

* This discourse was delivered not long after the riot in 
Chicago, for which the Anarchists were tried. 



54 RUTH THE GLEANER. 

time being, have tended to prejudice many against 
the working-men — ^we look at this problem, we shall 
find that there have been faults on both sides. If 
they have not been as courteous to their employ- 
ers as his reapers were to Boaz, neither have their 
employers always been as courteous to them as 
Boaz was to his reapers. And if the employed 
have been utterly neglectful of the principles of 
political economy, their employers have not always 
remembered that political economy, though it be a 
real science, is not mechanics, and has to do not 
with machines, but men. It is true, indeed, that 
in recent strikes the cause of alienation has been 
the employment of men who for some reason — not 
touching either their character or efficiency — have 
been distasteful to the majority of the workmen ; 
and it is astonishing that men of intelligence do not 
see that interference of that sort is a flagrant in- 
fringement upon the liberty of other workmen to 
earn their bread as they can. It is surprising, too, 
that they do not realize that when they strike they 
terminate the contract between them and their em- 
ployers^ and so put themselves out of court alto- 
gether, and forfeit all right even to arbitration. 
Then as to the question of hours. It is not to be 
denied that the demand of ten hours' wages for 
eight hours' work is one which, in its blindness, 
either does not or will not perceive that it is as im- 
possible to get that really in the long-run as it is to 
get five out of twice two. For even if the demand 



RUTH THE GLEANER. 55 

be acceded to, then, when things have adjusted 
themselves to the new state of matters thereby 
created, as they infaUibly will do in a very short 
time, it will be found that they have simply added 
one-fifth to the price of ever}^hing which they have 
to buy, and that is the same as saying that the pur- 
chasing power of their wages — nominally the same 
in dollars and cents — will then be reduced by one- 
fifth. Really, that is substantially what they are 
bringing upon themselves — nay, what they are eager- 
ly seeking, with all the added expense and danger 
of their strikes. Much, therefore, might be accom- 
plished by spreading a little more widely among 
them the knowledge of these principles, which are 
as simple as the alphabet, but as inexorable as the 
law of gravitation. 

But still the question arises. How shall we heal 
the state of feeling out of which this habit of look- 
ing upon each other as natural enemies has grown 
up between employers and employed .-* Now, in 
answer, some have suggested arbitration ; some 
have exhorted the working-men to make up for the 
want of capital in the hands of one by co-operation 
among themselves, so that they may become them- 
selves competitors of the employers ; and some 
have proposed that, by means like those suggested 
by Professor Ely, of Baltimore, the employed should 
be given a share of the profits of the employers, 
though that would be one-sided if they were not 
also called upon to make up a share of the losses 



56 RUTH THE GLEANER. 

— but, SO far as I have seen, few have spoken 
about that. Now, of course, a great deal can be 
said in favor of such schemes as these ; but for the 
present they all seem to me alike impracticable, 
because they all require for their successful opera- 
tion a disposition towards each other which is rad- 
ically different from that which has existed for a 
considerable time between them. If we had that 
changed, the problem would be more manageable. 
I am not sjire, indeed, but that the simple changing 
of that would remove the problem altogether. But 
how are we to change that ? How shall we remove 
all bitterness out of the hearts of employers towards 
their employed, and how shall we remove out of the 
hearts of the employed all envy of their employers .'' 
To that I have but one answer. The Lord Jesus 
Christ broke down the middle wall between Jews 
and Gentiles, and only He can reconcile — not su- 
perficially, but really and through and through — 
employers and employed. Boaz and his reapers 
belonged to the same commonwealth of Israel, and 
were heirs of the same covenant of promise. They 
were children of the same household of faith, and 
so they regarded each other as brethren. That was 
what kept this greeting from degenerating into a 
mere formality. That was what produced their 
mutual kindliness for each other. And in the same 
way, when employers and employed shall recognize 
their common brotherhood to Christ, and feel that 
in dealing with each other they are dealing with 



RUTH THE GLEANER. 57 

Christ, then and then only shall we get rid of that 
mutual suspicion of each other which is the soil 
wherein all these roots of bitterness spring up. I 
hear, therefore, in these labor troubles a new and 
louder call to the churches of our land to prosecute 
with vigor the work of home evangelization, not 
only among the working- people, but also among 
their employers. I emphasize that last clause, 
"but also among their employers," for they need it 
just as much as their workmen. It is common, I 
fear, to think that evangelization is required only 
for the masses of the employed, but that is a delu- 
sion. There are proportionately as many unbelievers 
in the gospel among the capitalists as there are 
among the laborers. I fear that, in proportion to 
the numbers of both, there are more, and, as a rule, 
employers are far too indifferent to the gospel. They 
are not sufficiently under its power, and perhaps the 
inkling of what atheistic socialism would do if it 
could, which these last weeks have given, may help 
to quicken them to a sense of the importance of their 
identifying themselves more thoroughly with Christ. 
But only in the meeting of both in Christ will the 
solvent of this problem be found, and we must seek 
so to deal with both as to bring that about. For 
when that is reached there will be courtesy and 
kindliness in their intercourse. They will not be 
afraid of each other, neither will they be suspicious 
of each other, but they will love as brethren, and 
selfishness will cease to be the main-spring of their 
3* 



5^ RUTH THE GLEANER. 

conduct. This has been demonstrated very clear- 
ly in the case of individual establishments. I have 
not heard of any strikes or bitterness at St. Johns- 
bury, Vermont, where masters and men are office- 
bearers in the same church, and brethren at the 
same communion-table. And that is by no means 
a solitary instance. Conversing not long ago with 
the president of a railway who had just been be- 
reaved of his wife, I learned from him that some 
of the most touching letters which he had received 
at the time of his trial came from surface-men on 
the line. Wherever he had gone he had sought to 
show himself friendly to his men, and so they could 
not help expressing sympathy with him. Nothing 
approaching to any feeling of suspiciousness had 
ever come between them, and he has no fear of a 
strike among them. Give us this common Chris- 
tianity between them, and we may trust that^ either 
to prevent any differences or to settle them peace- 
fully when they do arise. Nothing else will do it. 
But if you have that, any feasible plan will be work- 
able. " He is our peace." Oh, when shall the 
different classes among us find out that? Come 
forth out of Thy royal chamber, O Thou living 
Christ ! In the triumph of Thy love bring employ- 
er and employed together to Thy feet, that they 
may choose Thee for the great arbitrator between 
them, and Thy decisions, being founded in love as 
well as justice, shall be willingly accepted by them 
both. 



RUTH THE GLEANER. 59 

I had intended to add a word on the beautiful 
prayer of Boaz for Ruth — "The Lord recompense 
thy work, and a full reward be given thee of the 
Lord God of Israel, under whose wings thou hast 
come to trust " — but I must forbear. Let me only 
commend to you all the protection of these out- 
spread wings. You must go to trust somewhere. 
You are now trusting in something. Whither have 
you gone ? In what are you trusting ? No wings 
but God's can cover you in the time of trial and in 
the day of judgment. Therefore, get beneath them 
now. This is your opportunity. Get beneath 
them 7iow^ lest a day should come when He shall 
say, " How often would I have gathered thee as a 
hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye 
would not.-* Behold, now, your house is left unto 
you desolate." 



IV. 

THE THRESHING-FLOOR. 
Chapter II., 18— III., 18. 

Naomi had probably an anxious day of it, as 
she sat at home, wondering how her daughter-in- 
law was faring among strangers in the harvest- 
field. But when she saw Ruth return at even-tide 
with an epha of barley in her mantle and a look 



6o RUTH THE GLEANER. 

of satisfaction on her face, she did not need to ask 
how she had got on, for she knew at once that 
" the Unes had fallen unto her in pleasant places." 
We can easily imagine with what pride the daugh- 
ter laid her burden down at the mother's feet, and 
with what delight she brought forth the surplus of 
the parched corn which Boaz had given her at 
noon, and which she had so thoughtfully reserved 
as a treat for the solitary one whom she had left at 
home. We can easily, also, fill in the outline which 
the sacred writer has given us of the mother's joy 
as, looking at the result of her daughter's exertions, 
she broke out into ejaculations of pleased surprise, 
and ran on into a series of questions without wait- 
ing for an answer to any one of them ; finding at 
length the fitting climax to her feelings in a ben- 
ediction of her benefactor. It was as if she had 
said : " Well done, my daughter ! Who could have 
expected anything like this .'' Where did you get all 
that barley ? And the parched corn, too — how good 
it is ! Surely, they must have been particularly 
kind to you. Whose part of the field were you in ? 
who did you glean with.? He must have taken 
special notice of you, and, whoever he was, may a 
•blessing rest on him for his goodness. It may have 
been a little thing to him, but it has been a great 
deal to you and to me." 

Then, when Ruth had rested a little, and Naomi's 
effusiveness gave her an opportunity to speak, she 
told that the man on whose part of the field she had 



RUTH THE GLEANER. 6 1 

gleaned was Boaz. In a moment it flashed upon Na- 
omi's memory that Boaz was a kinsman of Elimelech 
— was, in fact, one of the Goelim, or redeemers, on 
whom it might devolve, according to the law of 
Moses, to buy the land which had belonged to her 
deceased husband, and which, under the pressure 
of circumstances, she would now have to sell in or- 
der to get the means of support. This being the 
case, Naomi thought she saw the motive of Boaz 
in showing such kindness to Ruth, and so the ben- 
ediction, which had before been general and imper- 
sonal, is repeated by her with definite reference to 
him, for she says : " Blessed of Jehovah be he, who 
hath not left off his kindness to the living and to 
the dead ;" that is, who hath shown his generosity 
to the living, and through that hath made manifest 
his continued respect for the memory of the dead. 
She recognized the providence which had conduct- 
ed Ruth to his part of the field ; and hearing of 
his treatment of Ruth, and of his request that 
she should keep fast by his young men until the 
close of his harvest, she probably discerned in this 
the beginning of the end of all their troubles, 
though it is hardly likely that as yet she had any 
definite conception of the precise manner in which 
they were to be terminated. But whatever were 
her motives, she heartily urged Ruth to accept the 
invitation of Boaz , and thus it came about that all 
through the time of harvest, which lasted for at 
least two or three weeks, Ruth kept close by the 



62 RUTH THE GLEANER. 

maidens of Boaz to glean by day, and returned at 
evening to the abode of Naomi, to cheer her by 
her nightly reports of the day's doings, given by 
the one in the open frankness of affection, and 
commented on by the other with the wisdom of 
experience. 

But when the harvest was finished, the old ques- 
tion of " What shall we do now ?" had to be con- 
fronted ; and this time Naomi took the initiative, 
for now she thought she saw the prospect of a life 
settlement for Ruth. It is beautiful to mark the 
unselfishness of each of these women, or rather 
their unselfish consideration of each by the other. 
As Cassell has said : " While the women are in dis- 
tress it is Ruth that takes the initiative ; now when 
hope grows large it is Naomi. When hardship was 
to be endured, the mother submitted her will to the 
daughter, for Ruth was not sent to glean but went 
of her own accord ; now, when the endeavor is to 
secure the joy and happiness held out in prospect, 
the daughter yields in all things to the direction of 
the mother. The thought of labor for the mother 
originates with the daughter, but it is the mother 
who forms plans for the happiness of the daugh- 
ter."* Naomi had set her heart on finding rest for 
Ruth in the house of a husband, and that husband 
no other than Boaz. With this object in view, she 
unfolds a plan v/hich she desires Ruth to follow in 

* Lange, in loco. 



RUTH THE GLEANER. 6^ 

every particular. In the simple narrative it is given 
thus : " And now is not Boaz of our kindred, with 
whose maiden3 thou wast ? Behold, he winnoweth 
barley to-night in the threshing-floor. Wash thy- 
self therefore, and anoint thee, and put thy raiment 
upon thee, and get thee down to the floor : but 
make not thyself known unto the man, until he 
shall have done eating and drinking. And it shall 
be, when he lieth down, that thou shalt mark the 
place where he shall lie, and thou shalt go in, and 
uncover his feet, and lay thee down ; and he will 
tell thee what thou shalt do." 

Now all this, it must be confessed, seems to us, 
with our modern ideas, not only exceedingly improp- 
er, but also terribly hazardous. It must be admitted, 
too, that, judged even by the conventionality of 
those almost patriarchal times, it was unusual, and, 
as the words of Boaz himself make evident, would 
have been compromising to the reputation of both 
if it had been known. But in order to a right esti- 
mate of its nature we must take in all that can be 
said upon the other side. 

We must remember, in the first place, that the 
proposal was made by Naomi, whose whole charac- 
ter, as it comes out in this book, was marked by de- 
vout reverence towards God and purity tov^ards 
man, and to whom the honor of Ruth was as dear 
as her own. We cannot, therefore, believe that she 
would wilfully do that vdiich would endanger her 
reputation. That would have been but a poor re- 



64 RUTH THE GLEANER. 

turn for all the self-sacrifice that Ruth had mani- 
fested on her behalf. 

Again, we must take it for granted that she knew 
the sort of man Boaz was. Probably in the years 
gone by he had been the companion and friend of 
her husband, and she had then had means of judg- 
ing of his character. Then, since her return she 
had been watching him, and perhaps she felt that 
she could trust Ruth in his hands. Furthermore, 
we must believe that there had been lying behind 
all this an interesting history which is here unwrit- 
ten, and which had come out during these harvest 
weeks in the evening talks of Ruth after her return 
from the field, and, perhaps, also, in the visits of 
Boaz, on occasions, at her humble home. She had 
been taking notes very diligently all the time, and it 
may be that the pensive absent-mindedness of her 
daughter, now that the gleaning season was over, 
had revealed to her that she was something else 
than indifferent to her benefactor ; while, perhaps, 
there were indications also on the part of Boaz that 
his interest in Ruth was more tender than that of 
mere kindness and compassion. 

But more than all, we must give full weight to the 
fact that Boaz was one of Elimelech's Goelim, and to 
the claim which law and custom gave to her on him 
in that capacity. There were three duties which de- 
volved upon the Goel, or kinsman redeemer. These 
may be succinctly described as follows : When an 
Israelite, through poverty, sold his inheritance and 



RUTH THE GLEANER. 65 

was unable to redeem it, it devolved upon his 
Goel to purchase it. Again, when an Israelite had 
wronged any one and sought to make restitution, 
but found that the party whom he had wronged 
was dead without leaving a son, it fell to the next 
of kin of the injured party to represent him and re- 
ceive the reparation. Finally, when a man was 
foully murdered, it fell to the Goel or next of kin, 
subject to the provisions laid down in connection 
with the Cities of Refuge, to execute justice on the 
murderer, and hence he was called the Avenger of 
Blood. 

But along with these duties devolved on the Goel 
by law, others seemed to have been required of him 
by custom ; for, when there was no one else to do it, 
he came to be looked to for the carrying out of the 
provisions of what is called the Levirate law. That 
statute enjoined that when a man died without leav- 
ing children, his brother should marry the widow, 
and the first-born of that marriage should be ac- 
counted the child of the deceased. But when there 
was no brother-in-law, custom looked to the Goel 
to take his place. The law did not absolutely re- 
quire it, but public opinion did — though it did not 
put the repudiation of the widow's claim by the 
Goel upon the same plane of dishonor as it did that 
of the brother-in-law. If the brother-in-law refused 
to marry his sister-in-law, he was subjected to insult 
at her hands by her plucking off his shoe and spit- 
ting in his face in the gate of the city — acts which 



66 RUTH THE GLEANER. 

were equivalent among us Western people to the 
knocking of a man's hat over his eyes on the Ex- 
change — and the subjecting of him, besides, to the 
vilest indignity. In the case of a kinsman not so 
near as the brother, there was indeed no specific 
statute on the subject, but custom had sanctioned 
a kind of amalgamation of the law relating to the 
Levirate marriage, with that concerning the Goel, 
or redeemer ; so that, as Alexander has said, " The 
Goel had a right to purchase the land, but in so 
doing came under an obligation from custom to 
marry the widow of the deceased owner ; and the 
brother-in-law (Levir) was bound to marry the widow 
of his deceased brother, which involved, as a matter 
of course, the redemption of his property if he had 
sold it." =^ 

Now, if I have succeeded in making the matter 
plain to you, it will be apparent that Boaz, as a Goel 
of Elimelech, had a right by law to redeem his prop- 
erty, and that, according to the custom, the ex- 
ercise of that right involved on his part, also, the 
marriage of Naomi. But Naomi transferred her 
claim to Ruth, and the question she had to solve 
was how to bring that before the notice of Boaz. 
It was not his part in such a case to offer. He had 
to wait until he was requested to act ; and this 
plan was formed by Naomi for the purpose of 
bringing him to prompt and decisive action in the 

case. 

* Alexander's Kitto, s. v. " Kinsman." 



RUTH THE GLEANER. 67 

But when all is said that can be said on her be- 
half, I fully appreciate and indorse the words of 
Kitto, when he thus writes, " We still think, how- 
ever, that the occasion for making this demand was 
unusual, and, to a certain degree, indiscreet. This 
may be gathered from the anxiety which Boaz him- 
self eventually expressed, while doing the utmost 
honor to her character and motives, that it should 
not be known that a woman had been there. He 
must have feared that evil tongues might miscon- 
strue, to his and her discredit, a proceeding far from 
evil when rightly understood. It is not unlikely 
that when this matter had been first suggested by 
Naomi, Ruth, as a stranger, had shrunk from mak- 
ing this claim publicly in the harvest-field, and that 
Naomi had, therefore, to spare her in that respect, 
devised this mode of enabling her to do so in pri- 
vate, in which she would find less difficulty, seeing 
that Boaz had already won her confidence by his 
fatherly consideration for her. It may be that de- 
sire to evade one difficulty somewhat blinded this 
good woman to the danger that may have lurked 
in the other alternative.'"^ Keeping, then, these 
considerations in mind, we may wdthout any diffi- 
culty thread our way through the rest of the story. 

The threshing-floor in those times, as, indeed, 
still in the East, was in the immediate neighbor- 
hood of the harvest-field. It was a level area, the 

* Daily Bible Illustrations, vol. iii. , p. 40. 



68 RUTH THE GLEANER. 

ground of which was trodden into hardness, and 
the grain was threshed, either by the dragging over 
it of a heavy slab called mowrej, or by the tram- 
pling of cattle. Then the winnowing was accom- 
plished by throwing up the grain with a fork against 
the wind ; and that operation was frequently per- 
formed at night to get the benefit of the evening 
breeze. At such times, also, it was usual either for 
the owner of the field or some of his men to sleep 
on the floor, in order that he might be ready to 
give the alarm if any robbers should come to steal 
from him the product of his industry. Thus Dr. 
Edward Robinson, speaking of Hebron, says, " Here 
we needed no guard around our tent. The mowers 
of the crops came every night and slept upon 
their threshing-floors to guard them, and this we 
had found to be universal in all the region of Gaza. 
We were in the midst of scenes precisely like those 
of the Book of Ruth, when Boaz winnowed barley 
in his threshing-floor, and laid himself down at 
night to guard the heap of corn."* And Dr. 
Thomson tells us that he has " on various occa- 
sions seen the mowers sleeping on the summer 
threshing-floors to prevent stealing, just as the 
wealthy Boaz did when Ruth came to him." He 
adds that " though it is not customary for women 
to sleep at those floors, and to do so would produce 
the same unfavorable impression which Boaz ap- 

* Biblical Researches, vol. ii. , p. 446. 



RUTH THE GLEANER. 69 

prehended, yet it is not unusual for husband, wife, 
and all the family to encamp at the threshing-floor 
and remain until the harvest is over."* 

These particulars will enable us to realize the 
whole circumstances, as Ruth followed implicitly 
the instructions of her mother-in-law. Watching 
until Boaz was fast asleep, she went and lay down 
at his feet. But when he became aware of her pres- 
ence he started up, and said, "Who art thou?" 
Whereupon she answered, " I am Ruth thine hand- 
maid : spread thy skirt," or rather spread thy wings 
— for there is no reference to the cover which she 
had taken from his feet — ^but rather she uses the 
figure of the bird which Boaz had already employed 
in speaking to her of Jehovah — spread thy wings 
over thine handmaid for thou art a Goel, or kinsman 
redeemer. " Take me under thy protection as thy 
wife." That was the formal claim of her words, 
and Boaz at once understood them in that sense, 
for he said, " Blessed be thou of Jehovah my daugh- 
ter : for thou hast showed more kindness in the 
latter end than at the beginning, inasmuch as thou 
followedst not young men whether poor or rich." 
That is to say, " This act of thine is a greater kind- 
ness to Naomi than was even thy leaving of Moab 
for her sake ; for thou hast deliberately preferred 
to stand in Naomi's place, and to claim from the 
Goel thy right at his hands, in order that ' the name 

* The Land and the Book, as before, pp. 648, 649. 



70 RUTH THE GLEANER. 

of the dead be not cut off from among his brethren, 
and from the gate of his place,' and because thou 
hast thus merged thyself in the house and lineage 
of Elimelech, blessed be thou of Jehovah." Then 
he pledged himself to do all that she required, be- 
cause all the gate of his people knew that she v»ras 
a worthy woman. 

But there was still one obstacle in the way, for 
though he was a Goel he was not the Goel. There 
was a kinsman nearer to Elimelech than he, and 
nothing could be done by Boaz until that relative 
had repudiated. He promised, therefore, that in 
the morning he v/ould bring the matter before that 
other, and if he would perform the kinsman's part, 
well and good, let him do it ; but if he would not, 
then Boaz would take his place, and this assur- 
ance he confirmed with an oath, " as Jehovah liv- 
eth." Then in the morning, before one could dis- 
cern another, he sent her away to Naomi, and that 
her mother might have the assurance of his good- 
w^illj even although her plan had not gone altogether 
as she had expected, he sent with her six measures 
of barley, which he scooped into her mantle. 

On her return, Naomi met her with the singular 
yet suggestive question, " Who art thou, my daugh- 
ter ?" as if she had said, Art thou still the widow of 
Mahlon,* or art thou now the betrothed of Boaz ? 
and in answer Ruth told her all she had to tell, which, 

* See chapter iv, , lo. 



RUTH THE GLEANER. 7 1 

when Naomi heard, she knew how to interpret, for 
she said, " Sit still my daughter until thou know how 
the matter will fall : for the man will not rest until he 
have finished the thing this day." How true this fore- 
cast was, and what came out of the intervention of 
Boaz, we shall see in our next discourse ; mean- 
while let us ourselves become gleaners, and gather 
up a few suggestive lessons from this fruitful field. 
And, in the first place, let me draw your atten- 
tion to the general wholesomeness and helpfulness 
of evening confidences among the members of the 
same household when the labors of the day are 
done. Few things in this most interesting story 
are more beautiful than the frank and simple talks 
between Naomi and Ruth, in the confidence of do- 
mestic abandon^ before they retired for the night. 
The daughter then made the mother sharer in all 
her experiences throughout the day, and the moth- 
er follov/ed up the communication with practical 
suggestions for the morrow. One needs not to ap- 
prove in every particular the counsels which Naomi 
gave, before he can see the value of such a house- 
hold custom ; and if I may speak alike from obser- 
vation and experience, I would say that the hap- 
piest hours of home life are those in which parents 
and grown-up children sit together in winter by the 
cheerful fire, and in summer in the cool, dim twi- 
light, and tell each other where they have gleaned, 
and with whom, and with what success they have 
labored throughout the day. Nor is the happiness 



72 RUTH THE GLEANER. 

of such fellowship all the good that there is in it. 
It unifies the household, giving to all a deep and 
living interest in the labors and success of each, 
and so helping to counteract that tendency to utter 
individualism which is one of the greatest evils of 
our modern life. Too often the members of the 
same household are nothing more to each other 
than sharers of the same abode. They go outside 
to have their confidences with strangers, and fre- 
quently parents and brothers and sisters are among 
the last to know of any unusual experience through 
which they have been brought. Thus the home 
becomes little more than a small hotel, and the help- 
ful counsel of the parents and the other members 
of the family is entirely lost. Sure I am that many 
of the young people who go astray in modern busi- 
ness or society might have been kept from evil 
courses if only they had utilized the blessing of 
this home cabinet ; while, on the other hand, the 
hearts of parents would have been kept fresh and 
healthy if their children had but made them par- 
takers of the details of their day's doings. The 
most natural thing in the world for a little child is 
to tell where he has been, and what he has been 
about ; and when he grows up into manhood there 
is something wrong with him, or something wrong 
at home, if that healthy custom is abandoned. 
Either he has begun to go to places of which he is 
ashamed to speak, or his parents and the other 
members of the household have not been careful 



RUTH THE GLEANER. 73 

to maintain the happiness of home to such a de- 
gree that it will be in his estimation more attractive 
than all other localities. Let me urge, therefore, 
upon those who, like Ruth, must be away all the 
day, to engage in nothing and to go to no place of 
which they would be ashamed to speak in the even- 
ing to father or mother or sisters ; and let me en- 
treat the parents and members of families generally 
to vie with each other in their efforts to make home 
happy for those who are pulling at the business oar, 
and " toiling in rowing " all the day. Sisters, why 
should you reserve your winning smiles and pa- 
tient attention and willing practice of accomplish- 
ments for the party outside, or for the casual visit- 
ors who come to call upon you, and show yourselves 
petulant, discourteous, disobliging, and generally un- 
amiable to your own brothers.-* Do you not real- 
ize that much of the moulding of their characters 
is in your hands ? and if they fall into evil courses, 
what will you have to say at last when the Lord 
asks you, " Where are your brothers ?" Perhaps if 
you had cared to make yourself attractive to them, 
they might not now have been wanderers from their 
fathers' houses. 

And you, young men, who are living at home, 
be thankful that you have still a father and a 
mother to whom you can go with all your con- 
cerns, and who are still able and willing to be 
your advisers. Do not despise their wisdom ; do 
not trample upon their love. You will never know 



74 RUTH THE GLEANER. 

the worth of them until you lose them ; and then 
O what a misery it will be to you to reflect that 
you slighted their counsel and made light of their 
affection while they lived. 

Parents, you, too, have a solemn responsibility 
here. Do not allow yourselves even to seem to be 
troubled when your young people come to you for 
advice. Do not account their affairs as too insignif- 
icant for you to be interested in ; hear them with pa- 
tient, real, loving, attention, and give them the best 
wisdom you can command. Encourage them to 
come to you with their concerns, and beware of draw- 
ing the cord of authority so tight that it will snap, and 
leave you without so much as influence. Remember 
that as young people grow up to manhood and wom- 
anhood they must be guided rather than governed by 
you; and if you would gain their confidences and 
keep them, you will succeed best when you seem least 
eager to demand them as of right. As one has very 
wisely said : "Young men and women, conscious of 
growing personal responsibility, will not tolerate be- 
ing treated as mere children, and will fret against 
what appear to them as unnecessary restraints. But 
it is possible by wise management to obtain all de- 
sirable information without a display of authority, 
and without arousing antagonism. Knowing the ten- 
der interest of their parents' hearts in all their expe- 
riences, sons and daughters will love to return home 
and voluntarily tell all the story of the day, inci- 
dents humorous, vexing, or encouraging, and those 



RUTH THE GLEANER. 75 

fireside reviews of life will be the most delightful 
part of their time."* 

Let me point out to you now, in the second place, 
the true ideal of marriage. Naomi put it precisely 
right when she said to Ruth : '* Shall I not seek 
rest for thee, that it may be well with thee ?" The 
rest of the wife should be in the affection of the 
husband, and the rest of the husband should be in 
the love of the wife. Each should have comfort in 
the support and confidence of the other. The hus- 
band should be always sure of the sympathy and 
co-operation of the wife ; and the wife should be 
able to rely implicitly on being understood and trust- 
ed — and, if need be, defended — by the husband. 
They should be so identified — or, to take the small- 
er and better word, so one with each other — that 
whatever comes to one comes to both ; that neither 
should add to the afHiction of the other by putting 
his or her own weight on to the load that has to 
be borne ; that, in short, they should divide each 
other's burdens and double each other's joys. The 
confidence of each in the other should be so abso- 
lute and entire as to give rest to the heart of each, 
whether in the trials of business, or in the " many 
things " that are so troublous and distracting in 
household management. Unless this be the case a 
marriage is shorn of its highest glory, its greatest 
helpfulness, and its holiest influence. And yet, 

* Braden. The Beautiful Gleaner, p. 478. 



76 RUTH THE GLEANER. 

alas ! how often it is far below this beautiful ideal ! 
It is entered upon too frequently without knowl- 
edge of each other's characters, aptitudes, and idio- 
syncrasies, and from merely secular motives, be- 
cause of the position which it will command or 
the advantages which it will bring, and without 
any idea of mutual helpfulness. And then after 
a time the illusion is dispelled; disappointment 
leads to alienation, alienation to unhappiness, un- 
happiness to divorce, and that, again, sometimes — 
so little valued are the lessons of experience — to a 
repetition of the same miserable circle with other 
parties. I say nothing now of the evil of the short 
and easy method of obtaining divorces which is the 
shame of our country, and which is twin-sister to 
Mormonism itself ; but I do cry out with all my 
might against those thoughtless alliances and mer- 
cantile marriages which end so frequently in di- 
vorce, and I implore young people to view this 
matter, " not lightly or unadvisedly, but reverently, 
discreetly, soberly, and in the fear of the Lord." I 
am old-fashioned enough to believe in love, and I 
am Christian enough to believe that no Christian 
can be truly happy in an alliance in which Christ 
is not supreme. Therefore I would lay down two 
principles : to all alike I say, do not marry one whom 
you do not love — that is the law of nature ; then to 
the Christian I add this other : do not marry one 
who has no love to Christ — that is the law of grace. 
Comply with these two precepts, and other things 



RUTH THE GLEANER. 77 

will soon naturally and easily adjust themselves ; 
but without these essentials nothing will go right 
for any length of time. Above all, young woman, 
never marry an infidel to convert him, or a drunk- 
ard to steady him, or a rake to reform him ; for if 
you do, you sacrifice yourself for nothing, inasmuch 
as you will entail misery on yourself without any 
certainty of benefiting him. Let the reformation 
come first, and then there will be more assurance 
of happiness. 

But now just a word, in conclusion, on the value 
of character. Boaz said to Ruth, "All the city of 
my people doth know that thou art a worthy wom- 
an ;" and his conviction that she was indeed a no- 
ble woman led to his interest in her welfare, and 
ultimately to his making her his wife. But Ruth 
had not been very long in Bethlehem, and the fact 
that so soon she had gained such a reputation 
speaks volumes for her deportment. Character can- 
not long be hid. If it be good, it will reveal itself 
in worthy conduct ; but if it be bad, it will let itself 
out, in spite of any hypocritical efforts to hide itself. 
Through some little chink of unconscious and, there- 
fore, unwatched evil, it will surely come to light. The 
daily life of Ruth in the field was enough to let all 
know the sort of woman that she was. Thus char- 
acter and reputation are closely interlinked. The 
one is the flower, the other is the fragrance : but to 
have the fragrance rich, you must have the flower 
perfect So, to have the reputation good, you must 



78 RUTH THE GLEANER. 

not look to that first, but to the character, and then 
the reputation will take care of itself — nay, even in 
apparently questionable circumstances, as here the 
character will come to the rescue of the reputation. 
How important, then, it is to have a good character ! 
It is not only the highway to success in life, it is in 
itself the highest success. Cultivate good charac- 
ter, therefore ; and that you may do that in the 
right way, unite yourself to Jesus by living faith ; 
then go on after the plan of Peter, " add to your 
faith courage, to your courage knowledge, to your 
knowledge temperance, to your temperance pa- 
tience, and to your patience godliness, to your 
godliness brotherly kindness, and to your broth- 
erly kindness love ;" and :then you will be living 
epistles of Christ, known and read of all men, car- 
rying in your deportment the infallible indorsement 
of the genuineness of your piety. 



V. 

THE LOVING MARRIAGE. 
Chapter IV. 

In Palestine all important cities were surround- 
ed by strong walls. This was necessary for the 
defence of the inhabitants from the assaults of 
robbers, and nightly everything of value that could 



RUTH THE GLEANER. ( 79 

be stolen was brought in from the outside for safe- 
keeping. The only entrance or egress was by the 
gate, which was open throughout the day but closed 
at nightfall, and which, from the continual going 
out and coming in of the people by it, came to be 
a favorite place of resort for the community. The 
passage in which it stood was commonly vaulted, 
having a chamber over it, and so it w^as shady and 
cool, furnishing an agreeable lounging-place for all 
who sought for any reason to linger beneath its 
shelter. There were also chambers or recesses at 
the sides, and "a void place" of some considerable 
extent,* where the people could conveniently as- 
semble in considerable numbers. Thither went the 
curious to see and to be seen, and to hear all the 
news of the neighborhood. Thither the friend 
went to meet those whom he was expecting from 
the country, or to accompany those who were set- 
ting out upon a journey. There the markets were 
held j there, too, all legal business was transacted, 
in a very primitive yet wholly satisfactory manner. 
Many of these old customs continue to the pres- 
ent day, and the vivid description given by Dr. W. 
M. Thomson of what he had often seen in Jaffa may 
help us to realize more thoroughly the nature of 
the court which Boaz extemporized for the securing 
of the object which he had so much at heart. Says 
our venerable friend : "In 1834 I resided for sev- 

* I Kings, xxii., 10. 



8o RUTH THE GLEANER. 

eral months in this city (Jaffa), and, to pass away 
the time, frequently came out in the afternoon ' to 
the gate through the city, and prepared my seat in 
the street.' There the governor, the kady, and the 
elders of the people assembled daily, 'in a void 
place,' and held an extemporaneous divan, at which 
affairs of every kind were discussed and settled 
with the least possible ceremony. But recently 
from America, I was greatly amused with this nov- 
el open-air court, conducted amid the din, confu- 
sion, and uproar of a thronged gate -way — men, 
women, and children jostling each other, horses 
prancing, camels growling, donkeys braying, as 
they passed in and out of the gate ; but nothing 
could interrupt the proceedings or disturb the ju- 
dicial gravity of the court. The whole scene, with 
all its surroundings, was wholly Oriental, and with- 
al had about it an air of remote antiquity which 
rendered it doubly interesting.'"* 

To the gate of Bethlehem, then, Boaz went 
straight up from his threshing-floor. Naomi had 
not misjudged when she averred that he would not 
rest until he had brought matters to a head. It 
was the first business that he set about that day; 
and when he reached the gate, he sat down on one 
of the seats in its vicinity with the air of one who 
had an important duty to discharge. By-and-by he 
observed the Goel of Naomi coming near, on his 

* Southern Palestine and Jerusalem, pp. 29, 30, 



/ 

RUTH THE GLEANER. 8 1 

way out into the field, and called to him, " Ho, 
such a one ! turn aside, sit down here." The orig- 
inal words, translated " such a one," are very pecul- 
iar, and some have supposed that they were an or- 
dinary legal formula, like the John Doe or Richard 
Roe of old English documents ; while others have 
preferred to take them as we take indefinite initials, 
like A. B. C. or M. N., and the like. They are in 
Hebrew " P'loni almoni," the former derived from a 
word meaning to mark out or distinguish, and the 
latter from a term which signifies to hide ; so that 
both together seem to give the notion of one who 
is indicated, though in a certain sense concealed ; 
and it is interesting to note that he who, as we 
shall presently see, would not marry Ruth lest he 
should mar his own inheritance while perpetu- 
ating the name of Mahlon, is not even named 
in this narrative, and has passed into utter ob- 
livion. 

Thus accosted by Boaz, this anonymous Goel sat 
down to await developments, wondering, perhaps, 
what was coming next, and only whetted to a more 
eager curiosity as he saw Boaz pick out ten men of 
the elders of the city, and place them in fonnal or- 
der, that they might be both witnesses and judges. 
Every city was governed by elders, and perhaps ten 
were needed to make what we should call a quorum, 
even as among modern Jews it is said that ten are 
required to constitute a synagogue. In any case, 
we may be sure that Boaz knew what he was about, 

4* ; 



82 RUTH THE GLEANER. 

and proceeded in everything according to consuetu- 
dinary law. 

The court having been thus constituted, Boaz be- 
gan the business by addressing the unnamed kins- 
man thus : " The parcel of land which was our broth- 
er Elimelech's, Naomi, that is come again out of 
the country of Moab, has determined to sell, and I 
have said, I will uncover thine ear to say ' Buy it, 
before the inhabitants and before the elders of my 
people. If thou wilt redeem it, redeem it; but if 
thou wilt not redeem it, then tell me, that I may 
know : for there is none to redeem it beside thee ; 
and I atn after thee. And he said, I will redeem it. 
Then said Boaz, What day thou buyest the field of 
the hand of Naomi, thou must buy it also,' " or as 
some read, " thou must buy also Ruth the Moab- 
itess, the wife of the dead to raise up the name of 
the dead- upon his inheritance. And the kinsman 
said, I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I mar mine 
own inheritance : redeem thou my right to thyself ;^' 
or rather, perhaps, "redeem thou instead of me." 

Now, to understand all this, it is necessary to re- 
capitulate some things which we have already ad- 
vanced concerning the duties of the Goel. The 
Jewish nation was a theocracy, that is to say, Jeho- 
vah was the King, and the land belonged to Him. 
Under His sanction it had been originally appropri- 
ated to the people, according to their tribes and fam- 
ilies by lot. But they could not do with it as they 
chose, and it never could be alienated from the fam- 



RUTH THE GLEANER. 83 

ily to whom it fell at. first. If the possessor for the 
time became poor he might sejl it, but never out 
and out, for it was always to revert to himself or his 
heirs it the year of jubilee ; nay, if he were able to 
redeem it before that time he might do so, or if be- 
ing himself unable, his next of kin had the means of 
buying it back, he had the privilege of redeeming it. 
Again, when the proprietor offered his land for sale 
it was the privilege of the next of kin to become the 
purchaser, and no other kinsman could buy it until 
he had formally given up that which was by law his 
privilege. This was the law of property, but side 
by side with it, and, as it would seem, intimately con- 
nected with it, there was also that of the Levirate 
marriage, to the effect that if an Israelite married 
and died without children, his brother should mar- 
ry his widow, and if a son should be born of that 
marriage that son was to take the name of the 
deceased man and inherit his estate, so that the 
property should not be alienated. Now, when the 
nearest of kin to such a widow was also her broth- 
er-in-law, the widow and the land, through the oper- 
ation of the two laws, would go together ; but when 
there was no brother-in-law, and yet a childless 
widow, the Goel who redeemed the land was also 
expected by custom to marry the v/idow. This was 
not laid down by the letter of the statute, but it 
seems to have been regarded as implied in the spirit 
of it, and so it became the custom, or what the 
Scottish people would call " the use and wont." 



84 RUTH THE GLEANER. 

Now this last was the case of Naomi. In her 
poverty she wanted to sell for the interval between 
that date and the year of jubilee the land that had 
belonged to Elimelech, and this had become known 
to Boaz. We may suppose, in fact, that Naomi had 
taken Ruth into her confidence, and that Boaz, hav- 
ing learned from her what her mother-in-law pro- 
posed, had seen in that a way to the immediate set- 
tlement of the business , for Ruth was as much con- 
cerned as Naomi, because, it a kinsman purchased 
the land, he came also under obligation thereby to 
make Ruth his wife. Now, so long as this anony- 
mous Goel knew nothing more than that Naomi 
wanted to sell the land, he expressed his willingness 
to become the redeemer of it , but the moment he 
heard that the purchase involved also the obliga- 
tion to marry Ruth, he renounced his privilege in 
favor of Boaz, who was the kinsman next after him. 
The reason which he gave for doing this is expressed 
in these words, " lest I mar mine own inheritance ;" 
and it has been explained in two or three different 
ways. Some have supposed that he had a wife and 
children already ; others, that he feared the risk of 
losing the perpetuation of his own name in secur- 
ing that of Elimelech; and others still that his 
means could not stand the drain upon them that 
would be made by the support of Naomi and Ruth, 
in addition to the finding of the purchase-money. 
Dr. Cassell suggests that he was moved simply by 
superstition, and feared that as Mahlon and Chi- 



RUTH THE GLEANER. 85 

lion had died so soon after their marriage with two 
daughters of Moab, a similar fate might befall him 
if he married Ruth. It is, perhaps, impossible now 
to say definitely what he referred to. One thing, 
however, is very clear, namely, that his whole thought 
was about his own inheritance, and thus selfishness 
was at the root of his decision. But, in any case, his 
determination must have been an immense relief to 
Boaz, who, despite the cool, matter-of-fact way in 
which he appeared to conduct himself throughout, 
was far from being indifferent to the issue. I have 
no doubt that he had a few uncomfortable moments 
after he heard the Goel say, in regard to the land, 
"I will redeem it," but when, after he had put the 
full case before his rival the irrevocable words were 
spoken, " Redeem thou instead of me," then would 
come a great gladness into his heart. Still he did 
not show his feelings before the time, and for the 
formal completion of the transaction there was yet 
to be gone through an interesting ceremony, which 
had fallen into abeyance before this book was writ- 
ten, but which helps to prove that there was an in- 
timate connection between the law of the Goel and 
that of the brother-in-law. The brother-in-law might, 
if he so chose, refuse to marry the widow of his 
brother, but if he did so, here is the statute : " If the 
man like not to take his brother's wife, then let his 
brother's wife go up to the gate unto the elders, and 
say. My husband's brother refuseth to raise up 
unto his brother a name in Israel, he will not per- 



86 RUTH THE GLEANER. 

form the duty of my husband's brother. Then the 
elders of his city shall call him, and speak unto 
him ; and if he stand to it, and say, I like not to 
take her ; then shall his brother's wife come unto 
him in the presence of the elders, and loose his shoe 
from off his foot and spit in his face, and shall an- 
swer and say, So shall it be done unto that man that 
will not build up his brother's house, and his name 
shall be called in Israel, The house of him that hath 
his shoe loosed."* Now, in connection with that 
quotation from the Book of Deuteronomy, let us 
read what is said here in the Book of Ruth : " Now 
this was the manner in former time in Israel con- 
cerning redeeming and concerning changing, for to 
confirm all things ; a man plucked off his shoe and 
gave it to his neighbor : and this was a testimony 
in Israel." This old custom originated in the fact 
that when a man took possession of land he planted 
his foot — of course with the shoe on it — on the soil. 
Thus the shoe became the symbol of ownership, 
and by handing that to another, a man renounced 
his own title to the land which he was selling, and 
transferred it to the person who received the shoe. 
But there was a wide difference between a man's 
taking off his shoe of his own accord, and having 
it plucked off by another. I may remove my hat 
to salute another without any disgrace ; but he who 
knocks my hat from my head insults me. So the 

* Deut. XXV., 7-10. 



RUTH THE GLEANER. 87 

plucking off of the shoe by another was an igno- 
minious thing; and thus the Goel who refused to 
marry his brother's widow was publicly disgraced; 
and the indignity was further intensified by his be- 
ing spit upon by his sister-in-law, and by his entail- 
ing on himself and his children the opprobrious 
nickname of " Barefoot," or "Baresole," in all com- 
ing time. Now, in the case before us, Boaz did not 
proceed to such extremities. So far as appears, 
neither Ruth nor Naomi was present during the 
proceedings at the gate, and the Goel was permitted 
to take off his own shoe, while the rest of the pen- 
alty was dispensed with. Boaz did not wish to pro- 
voke antagonism by proceeding to extremities, or it 
may be that it was only in the case of the brother- 
in-law refusing " to raise up the name of the dead 
upon his inheritance " that the law was carried out 
to the letter. Or perhaps Cox is right when he says : 
" His motive in thus sparing his kinsman is not sim- 
ply, I suppose, either a kindly consideration for a 
man closely related to himself, or his love for Ruth, 
but also the conviction that an Israelite, caring only 
for the letter of the law and not for its spirit, might 
honestly doubt whether he were bound to marry his 
' brother's ' widow, when that widow was a daughter 
of Moab. True, Ruth had come to put her trust 
under the shadow of Jehovah's wings. True, she 
was known as a good and brave woman in all the 
city of Bethlehem. But none the less she was by 
birth an alien, one of the heathen women with whom 



88 RUTH THE GLEANER. 

the sons of Israel were forbidden to intermarry. 
The law was doubtful : if the appeal to it were 
pushed too far he might defeat his own end."* So 
he let the Goel pull off his own shoe, and when he 
had received it he said to the elders, and to the 
crowd of people who had by this time assembled 
round them at the gate : " Ye are witnesses this day, 
that I have bought all that was Elimelech's, and all 
that was Chilion's and Mahlon's, of the hand of 
Naomi. Moreover, Ruth the Moabitess have I pur- 
chased to be my wife, to raise up the name of the 
dead upon his inheritance, that the name of the 
dead be not cut off from among his brethren and 
from the gate of his place : ye are witnesses this 
day." To this the elders gave formal response, 
"We are witnesses," and they and the people vied 
with each other in their benediction of the man who 
had thus nobly performed the kinsman's part. They 
use, indeed, the words which have become the rec- 
ognized formula of benediction in a Jewish mar- 
riage ; and which, though here, perhaps, employed 
for the first time, are for that very reason the more 
significant, inasmuch as they put Ruth the Moab- 
itess side by side with Rachel and Leah, and so in- 
dicate that the people of Bethlehem were prepared 
to receive her into the covenant of promise and the 
commonwealth of Israel, as no longer a stranger 
and foreigner, but as a daughter in the household 
of faith. 

* Expositor, vol. ii., p. i6g. 



RUTH THE GLEANER. 89 

So Boaz Openly and legally made Ruth his wife, 
and the fruit of the marriage was a son, who is 
called the Goel or redeemer of Naomi (chap, iv., 
14), because he was accounted her grandson, as 
standing to her in the place of the son of Mahlon. 
That this was the light in which he was regarded 
by all the people is clearly revealed, not only by 
the tenderness with which Naomi treated him, but 
also by the fact that it is to her rather than to Ruth 
that the congratulations of the women of Bethle- 
hem are especially addressed ; and by their giving 
him the name Obed, a servant, indicating that in 
their view he would be a constant minister to the 
comfort of Naomi in the time of her old age. In- 
deed, as Cox, borrowing and condensing the com- 
ment of Cassell on this part of the chapter, has 
said, " It is one of the many fine points of the story 
that its concluding sentences are almost wholly de- 
voted, not to the young and happy wife and mother, 
but to Naomi, who had suffered so many calamities, 
and who, by the piety and resignation with which 
she bore them, had drawn Ruth from the idolatries 
of Moab. It is Naomi, not Ruth, whom ' the women 
her neighbors ' congratulate on the birth of Ruth's 
son. In him they see Naomi's Goel — Ruth had al- 
ready hers in Boaz — and they pray that as he grows 
up he may restore her to her former happiness, and 
be the stay and gladness of her old age."* Yet 

* Expositor, vol. ii., pp. 372, 373. 



90 RUTH THE GLEANER. 

Ruth is not forgotten, for she is spoken of as Nao- 
mi's " daughter-in-law, which loveth thee, which is 
better to thee than seven sons." We are permitted 
to see, also, ere the book closes, that in the course 
of time the little boy "whom Naomi laid in her 
bosom" became the progenitor of David the dar- 
ling of Israel, and through him of Jesus the Sav- 
iour of the world. Truly, on that wedding-day, as 
Boaz led home his bride amid the benedictions of 
his friends and neighbors, some prophetic seer 
might have addressed her thus : 

' ' Thou knowest not the glorious race, 

Sweet Ruth ! that shall be thine ; 
How many kings thou shalt embrace 

In thy illustrious line. 
The fountains of Hebraic song 

Are in thy heart, fair Ruth ! 
Fountains whose tides are deep and strong 

In deathless love and truth. 



The great in wisdom and in song, 

The bard of deathless fame, 
A mighty and a warlike throng 

Shall rise to bless thy name. 
And One, at last, of lowly birth. 

Shall crown thy long increase. 
Of lowly birth, yet not of earth — 

The glorious Prince of Peace." 

Yes, thou beautiful gleaner ! lovely and beloved, 
we greet thee, too, as a mother of our Lord ! The 
ideal woman of the Old Testament, we place thee 



RUTH THE GLEANER. 9 1 

side by side with the Mary of the New, while we 
bow in lowly reverence before Him who is the Son 
and yet the Lord of both. 

Not every story that begins so sadly as this did 
has so sweet and pleasant an ending. Not always 
are virtue, piety, constancy, and self-sacrifice so vis- 
ibly rewarded upon the earth. But we are not on 
that account to think the less of the providence of 
God ; for virtue is not to be pursued because of its 
reward, and right is to be done for its own sake — 
nay, rather, for the sake of God. Then, when the 
end shall come — not here, but hereafter — ^we shall 
see the vindication of Jehovah, and forget all else 
in the " Well done " of an approving Judge. 

I linger only to give point to two lessons which 
lie on the surface of this narrative. 

The first is, that in the matter of marriage, every- 
thing ought to be public, open and above-board. 
How nobly does Boaz appear all through these 
transactions ! He is careful not to infringe upon 
the right of another, and he contracts for marriage 
openly before the elders of the people. There was 
nothing clandestine about his procedure. This 
was no runaway match, to be formally made in se- 
cret haste and bitterly lamented in lifelong leisure. 
He did not go away from Bethlehem to have it cel- 
ebrated, without the knowledge of friends and neigh- 
bors, but he went about it in the statutory way, and 
did all things decently and in order. Now, here is 
an example for young people in similar circum- 



92 RUTH THE GLEANER. 

stances. There may be exceptional cases, but, as a 
rule, clandestine marriages are to be condemned ; 
and if they turn out well, those who have contract- 
ed them should thank a gracious Providence rather 
than congratulate themselves on their own wisdom. 
There is generally something wrong when either the 
one party or the other wishes the relationship to be 
kept a secret; and the very proposal to do that 
should be itself a danger-signal that ought at once 
to bring things to a halt ; for, as one has well said, 
" Whenever there is anything in marriage or in its 
preliminaries that needs smothering up, the wind is 
sown, and the whirlwind will need to be reaped." 
Nor can I withhold here the expression of my 
opinion that the facilities given by the marriage 
laws, in this State, at least, for the contracting of 
such clandestine marriages, have much to do with 
the increase of divorces among us ; and I long to 
see one general marriage law for the whole nation, 
which, by requiring public notice to be given be- 
forehand in the place where the parties are known, 
and by insisting on the production before the cler- 
gyman of a certificate that such notice has been 
given, shall relieve the ministers of the gospel from 
the applications so constantly made to them to unite 
in matrimony those who are utter strangers both to 
them and to the city in which they dwell. Such a 
marriage law — the same for all the States of the 
Union, and enacted by the Houses of Congress — 
would, in my judgment, be one very effectual meth- 



RUTH THE GLEANER. 93 

od of dealing with the marriage problem ; but so 
long as magistrates among us, without any public 
notice or investigation, can marry all and sundry 
that come to them, and so long as even ministers 
of the gospel are sometimes over-persuaded to do 
what their better judgment disapproves, lest, per- 
haps, worse consequences should follow, so long 
we must expect that the institution of the family 
shall be degraded among us ; and that means, ul- 
timatelv, the deo:radation of all that is wholesome 
and conservative in the state. 

Finally, we may learn from all this that self-sac- 
rifice is self- saving, and that self-seeking is self- 
loving. Orpah went back to Moab, and she is heard 
of no more. Ruth clave to Naomi, and she is can- 
onized among the Old Testament saints, and has a 
place among the ancestors of our Lord. This name- 
less Goel was afraid lest his name should perish while 
he was seeking to perpetuate Mahlon's, and it has 
perished in spite of his refusal to be the Goel of 
Naomi. Boaz did what he declined, and lo ! his 
name stands in everlasting honor, on the first page 
of the New Testament. " He that loveth his life 
will lose it, and he that will lose his life for my 
sake, will keep it unto life eternal." Selfishness 
outwits itself, but self-sacrifice for Christ's sake 
issues in the highest gain. Yet if we make the sac- 
rifice for the sake of the gain, it is not self-sacrifice 
but selfishness. It must be made for Christ's sake, 
and then Christ himself will be our reward. 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. 



I. 

IN TROD UCTOR Y. 

The Book of Esther is one of five Old Testament 
books which were called by the later Jews " Megil- 
loth," the other four being the Song of Solomon, 
Ruth, Lamentations, and Ecclesiastes. The name 
" Megilloth " signifies rolls, or volumes, and was 
probably given to these books because each was 
read in the synagogue on a special festival day, and 
was for convenience on such occasions written on a 
separate roll. Of the five, that of Esther was the 
most highly esteemed, being sometimes styled sim- 
ply " Megillah," or the volume. It was read on the 
day of the feast of Purim, and was elevated to a 
place above the other sacred books, except those of 
the Pentateuch. It has ahvays been reckoned in 
the Old Testament canon, and is " named or im- 
plied in almost every enumeration of the books 
composing it, from Josephus downward." * More- 
over, the fact that seven other chapters, additional 
to those in the Hebrew canon, have been relegated 
to the Apocrypha, as unworthy of a place in Holy 

* Smith's Bible Dictionary^ Esther, Book of. 
5 



98 ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

Scripture, gives all the greater weight to those 
which are retained, and is an evidence that some 
discrimination was exercised by those on whom the 
decision of such a matter devolved. 

In modern times objections have been raised 
against its canonicity, especially on two grounds: 
First, because it makes no mention of God ; and, 
second, because it breathes a spirit of narrowness 
and vindictiveness. Now, as regards the first of 
these, though we admit that it states a fact, we yet 
fail to see that it has any force in this connection. 
For in the book there is no indication of any such 
animus towards God, as would make the omission 
of His name significant either of antagonism or of 
contempt. It is quite possible that there might be 
in a work that had no mention of God's name, such 
a spirit of irreverence and unbelief as to show that 
the absence of the divine name was meant to be a 
slight. But there is nothing of that in the Book of 
Esther ; for though the name of God is not in it, His 
hand is very manifest all through it, and the sense of 
His presence is made all the more vivid to the reader 
by the very silence of the writer. When Jesus, after 
His resurrection, met His followers at the Lake of 
Galilee, they were all sure that it was He ; but " none 
of them durst ask him, Who art thou ? knowing that 
it was the Lord." * Their very certainty that it was 
He kept them silent. Similarly, this writer, who- 

* John xxi., 12. 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. 99 

ever he was, takes it so thoroughly for granted that 
God's providence ordered the things that he re- 
cords, that he does not think it needful to refer to 
it ; and his silence is not that of unbelief, but of 
faith. Nay, more, I am not sure but that he pro- 
duces a deeper impression of God's minute over- 
ruhng care over His people by his silence than he 
would have done by any words. An orator may 
gain his end in the hearts of his hearers in one or 
other of two ways : either by going before them with 
an enthusiasm whose infection they are sure to 
catch, or by, as it were, keeping behind them and 
studiously holding himself from saying what they all 
feel that he ought, in consistency with his argument 
and principles, to say. In the latter case, when he 
ceases his hearers go away exclaiming, " Why did he 
not go further, and declare that this or that should 
be done at once ?" But, as they thus speak, they are 
all unconsciously manifesting the very spirit which 
he designed to evoke in them. Now it is on the 
latter principle that the Book of Esther is con- 
structed, and its very silence concerning God pro- 
vokes the reader to speak the more emphatically of 
the fact that His providence is so conspicuous in 
the history which it recounts. If that had been 
only once referred to by the writer, it would not 
have been nearly so frequently remarked on by the 
readers, and so a good object has been gained by 
the course which he has chosen. And, in any case, 
one who desired to palm off a production of his 



lOO ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

own for an inspired book, would never have thought 
of keeping God's name out of his forgery. In- 
deed, as if to give point to this argument, the very- 
first verse of the Apocryphal additions to the book 
which have been rejected as uncanonical, has this 
expression : " Then Mordecai said, God hath done 
these things." There is often a use of God's name 
when there is little regard for God himself, and 
sometimes they who know and love Him best are 
most chary in the utterance of His name. The 
Scottish shepherd of the olden time always said, 
when referring to the will of the Supreme, " It's 
His will." And the Waldensian traveller asked to 
be received simply " In His name." I do not 
know whether that was a more genuine piety, but 
I am sure that it was deeper than the modern va- 
riety, which has the most sacred appellations of the 
Eternal Father so frequently^! had almost said 
so flippantly — upon its tongue, and I cannot see, 
therefore, that the absence of God's name from such 
a book as we shall find this to be is any valid argu- 
ment against its canonicity. 

As regards the second objection, namely, that 
it contains the record of the manifestation of a nar- 
row and vindictive spirit, we may answer that the 
first indispensable quality of a history is that it be 
true, and, therefore, if that narrowness of spirit 
' were really there, it would have been false to con- 
vey the impression that it was not. Besides, the 
writer does not necessarily approve of that which 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. lOI 

he records; and we must not run away with the 
utterly absurd idea that the God of the Bible in- 
dorses everything which is narrated in the Bible. 
If we are to throw out of the Scriptures as unca- 
nonical every account of such human doings as God 
must disapprove of, we shall make it a very fragment- 
ary thing, and deprive it of much of its usefulness 
among men — for, before we get through with the ex- 
position of this book, we may find that those very 
chapters in it to which more especially this objec- 
tion is made are fraught v/ith lessons of warning 
and reproof, which we might not have received, so 
forcibly at least, if these things had been omitted. 
We take the Book of Esther, therefore, as canoni- 
cal. We accept it as an integral part of those 
Scriptures which Jesus has commanded us to 
search, and to which He gave His imprimatur 
when He said, "The Scriptures cannot be broken." 
Bat now the question arises. To what precise 
section of the history of the Jews in the time of 
the Captivity or Dispersion, does this episode of 
Esther belong ? And the ansv/er to that depends 
on the settlement of this other, namely. Who was 
the Ahasuerus — or, giving the name the form which 
it has in the original, the Achashverosh — of this 
book? In the first verse of the first chapter it is 
said, " This is Ahasuerus which reigned from India 
even unto Ethiopia, over a hundred and seven-and- 
twenty provinces." He was, therefore, Emperor of 
Persia at the time of the widest extent of that im- 



I02 ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

perial dominion. This at once determines that he 
could not be before Darius Hystaspis, by whom 
a portion of India was first annexed to the Persian 
Empire. The same thing is established by the fact 
that the royal residence is throughout this book at 
Susa, and it is well known that the palace there 
was first built by Darius. Therefore, no ruler prior 
to him will satisfy the conditions of the history. 
But neither can we identify Ahasuerus with Darius 
himself, for not to say that the character of Ahasu- 
erus, as here depicted, is altogether inconsistent 
with what we know elsewhere of Darius, we find 
from other sources that in the third year of his 
reign Darius was still struggling to maintain his 
claim to the crown ; Media was in revolt, and he 
himself was at Babylon, so that it would have been 
impossible for him, at that date, to hold a feast so 
extended and prolonged as that with the descrip- 
tion of which the Book of Esther begins. Again, 
this Ahasuerus cannot be Artaxerxes Longimanus, 
for it was in the seventh year of that monarch's 
reign that he issued the letter which Ezra carried 
with him to Jerusalem,* and which indicates that 
he was well acquainted with the Jews and their 
peculiar laws ; so that he cannot be the man to 
whom, in the twelfth year of his reign, Haman is 
represented in this bookf as speaking of the Jews 
as if then for the first time they had been brought 

* Ezra vii., 9, 11-28. f Esther iii., 8. 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. 103 

before his attention. Besides, the mild and humane 
qualities which come out in the patron of Ezra and 
Nehemiah are as far as possible from harmonizing 
with the characteristics of this Ahasuerus. 

But a later monarch than Artaxerxes Longimanus 
would be inconsistent with the genealogy of Mor- 
decai, as given in Esther ii., 5,6; so that we are 
reduced to the conclusion that the history belongs 
to the life of a Persian monarch between the reigns 
of Darius on the one hand and Artaxerxes Longi- 
manus on the other, and that must be Xerxes, the 
son of Darius and the father of Longimanus, known 
in history as the unsuccessful invader of Greece. 
And he satisfies all the conditions of the case. For, 
first of all, the name Achashverosh is the exact 
transliteration into Hebrew, consonant for conson- 
ant, of the Persian word Kh sh ay ar sha, which is 
found in some cuneiform inscriptions that have been 
taken from Persepolis, and which the Greeks and 
Romans abbreviated into Xerxes.* 

Again, in the third year of his reign, Xerxes as- 
sembled at Susa a great divan, preparatory to his 
invasion of Greece, corresponding to the feast here 
described ; and in the seventh year of his reign he 
returned to the same palace after his defeat, and 
gave himself up to the pleasures of his harem — 

* See 77/1? Book of Esther, with Notes and Illustrations. 
By The Lowell Hebrew Club. Edited by John W. Haley, 
M.A. pp. 10-12. 



I04 ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

facts which perfectly harmonize with the statements 
made and the dates given in the second chapter of 
this book. Moreover, the Xerxes whom Herodotus 
portrays exhibits the very same fits of passion, 
caprice, and cruelty which are here attributed to 
Ahasuerus. Thus, when Pythias, the rich Lydian 
who had hospitably entertained the Persian army 
on its way to Greece, and had offered Xerxes an 
enormous sum to defray the expenses of the war, 
asked of him as a favor that the eldest of his five 
sons, who were all in the army, should be released 
from military duty and permitted to remain at home 
with him to be a comfort to his declining years, 
Herodotus * tells us that Xerxes, in a rage, ordered 
that the young man should be put to death and that 
his body should be cut in twain, and made his en- 
tire army march between the pieces. The same 
historian informs us that when his famous bridge 
over the Hellespont was broken up by a storm, 
Xerxes commanded that the engineers who had 
superintended its construction should be beheaded ; 
ordered the sea to be scourged, and childishly 
thought to chain its waves by sinking a few fetters 
in its depths. He alleges, also, that after his re- 
turn from his shameful defeat to Persia, Xerxes 
sought to solace himself by revelling in sensual 
pleasures, even though that involved the execution 
of some of his nearest relatives. Now, all these 

* See Littlebury's Herodotus, pp. 387, 390, 540, 543. 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. 105 

acts are so thoroughly in keeping with the arbitrary 
contempt for human feeling and human life which 
are ascribed to Ahasuerus in this book, that we have 
no difficulty in identifying the one with the other. 
But Xerxes began to reign in 486 B.C., and died in 
465 B.C., and so the place of this book in Jewish his- 
tory is between the resumption of work on the Tem- 
ple by the returned exiles under Joshua and Zerub- 
babel, when Haggai and Zechariah prophesied, and 
the mission of Ezra to his countrymen, and it belongs 
chronologically to the long interval which elapsed be- 
tween the things related in the sixth and those men- 
tioned in the seventh chapters of the Book of Ezra. 
This being the case, we can at once realize to 
ourselves the condition of the Jews at the time. 
The first instalment of those who had returned to 
labor for the restoration of their nationality and 
worship had been now in Jerusalem for fifty-three 
years, contending for some of these with cunning 
and malignant adversaries ; but the rest of the de- 
scendants of the captives had elected to remain 
in the cities of their dispersion, where they were 
kindly treated and fairly prosperous, and were not, 
it is to be feared, either so exalted in patriotism, so 
heroic in character, or so self-forgetting in piety as 
those of whom we read in the books of Ezra and 
Nehemiah. But they were not neglected by their 
God. There was as real a providence in their re- 
maining where they were as there was in the return 
of the others to their own land ; for, if the latter 



I06 ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

prepared a Palestine for the appearance of the 
Messiah, the former made ready a means of com- 
munication between Jews and Gentiles against the 
coming of the time when the gospel should be 
preached by Jews to all nations under heaven. 

The scene of the story is from first to last in 
Shushan, or Susa, and it may be well, once for all, 
to give a description of the place. The site has 
been found in lat. 32° 10' N., long. 48° 26' E., be- 
tween the rivers Shapur and Dizful. It was orig- 
inally the capital of the country called in Scripture 
Elam, and by the classical writers, sometimes Kis- 
sia, and sometimes Sus or Susiana. Its ruins 
cover a space about six thousand feet long from 
east to west by four thousand five hundred feet 
from north to south. The circumference of the 
whole is about three miles. They were explored 
in part in the year 185 1 by General Williams, and 
the exploration was resumed in the following year 
by Mr. Loftus. " Coming from the west the trav- 
eller crosses the Shapur, a small stream flowing 
southward, and finds himself at the base of the 
smallest, but loftiest" (of the four mounds which 
now mark the site), " its extreme altitude above the 
river being one hundred and nineteen feet, and the 
circuit at the summit two thousand eight hundred 
and fifty feet. This mound doubtless represents the 
citadel of Shushan. Close by on the north-east rises 
a considerable square mass of some four thousand 
feet in circuit. Upon this have been discovered 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. I07 

foundations of a magnificent hall of columns, erected 
by Darius Hystaspis, consisting of thirty-six pillars 
arranged in rows of six each, and flanked on three 
sides at a distance of sixty-three and a half feet 
by double rows of pillars, six in each row. To the 
south-east of these mounds, and separated from 
them by narrow valleys, is a great platform of sixty 
acres, which reaches elevations of from forty to 
seventy feet, and is three thousand feet long on 
the east side. These three mounds together form 
a diamond-shaped block, having its angles nearly 
to the cardinal points, and including above one 
hundred acres of surface." ^ 

More recently the explorations begun by Gen- 
eral Williams and Mr. Loftus have been laboriously 
prosecuted by M. Dieulafoy. These have been de- 
scribed by Madame Dieulafoy in an article pub- 
lished in Hai'per's Magazine for June, 1887, and 
by M. Dieulafoy himself in a lecture before the 
Societe des Etudes Juives^ in Paris, April, 1888, of 
which a translation has appeared in the Bibliotheca 
Sacra for October, 1889. The plan of the palace 
is given by him in the accompanying illustration, 
which will be made more intelligible by the follow- 
ing extracts from the lecture itself. " The palace 
was composed of three groups of distinct apart- 
ments, each surrounded by a special enclosure, but 

* The Book of Esther. By The Lowell Hebrew Club, 
pp. 96, 97. 



loS 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. 



included within the same fortress. The Apaddna, 
or throne-room, resembled in its arrangement, and 
by its hypostyle architecture, a Grecian temple. 
The King occupied in the tabernacle the place of 
the statue of the deity. The hall at Susa covers 
nearly a hectare (between two and three acres) : 
the porticos, the stair-ways, the enclosures, were 




jio/aiCrate. 
GROUND-PLAN OF THE PALACE OF AHASUERUS AT SUSA. 



spread out upon a terrace, the area of which was 
eighteen times as large, and was divided into two 
parts by a pylon. On one side a gigantic stair-way 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. ICQ 

led to the outside parade on a level with a wide es- 
planade. On the other side, sparkling in its crown 
of emeralds, overshadowed by the foliage of a 
hanging garden, was the Apadana^ where were re- 
ceived the ambassadors of all the States of Greece. 
The private apartments of the sovereign were dis- 
tant from the Apadana^ and grouped around an 
interior court, with the hall of audience, bedrooms, 
apartments appropriated to the chancellor's office, 
to the military house, to the guard, to the depend- 
ants. In modern Persian, this part of the palace 
is called the Bh-iin (exterior), in contrast to the 
Anderoiin (interior harem), reserved for the women. 
The Anderoiin comprises the apartments of the 
queens and quite a large number of cells for the 
concubines of second rank, and for the postulants 
for the royal favors. The master of this depart- 
ment is not so much the King, as the grand eunuch. 
The Anderoun of Susa, walled, padlocked, and more 
tightly closed — I speak only from a constructive 
point of view — than even the most rigorous prison, 
is protected by the buildings of the Birun and the 
Apadana. The last two, recognizable in the accom- 
panying plan by their separation, and by the tower 
(keep) connected with the private dwelling of the 
King, occupy the two branches of a gigantic L, 
whose transept was reserved for the w^omen's apart- 
ments. Leaving the Anderoun by the west door, 
one would step out directly into the gardens of the 
Apadma ; walking towards the south, one would 



no ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

cross the Birim. The palace had numerous en- 
trances. I will mention the fortified gate of the 
King's house, and the gate of the general enclosure 
which opened to the south of the tower, and was 
the means of communication betw^een the acropolis 
and the city of Susa."* It was, according to M. 
Dieulafoy, at this gate that Mordecai was wont to 
sit, and it was in the Apadana that the banquet de- 
scribed in the first chapter of the Book of Esther 
was held. It is interesting to add that, although 
he speaks of the legend of Esther, M. Dieulafoy 
has declared that " the excavations at Susa not 
only confirm the architectural descriptions of the 
Book of Esther, but even the smallest details of the 
story,"t and affirms that " the epoch in which the 
Hebrew version of the book was written may be 
fixed in the fourth century, B.C.," and that "it was 
written honestly at Susa by a Susian Jew, and goes 
back for its Hebrew compilation to this side of the 
accession of Artaxerxes Mnemon, and far beyond 
the Parthian conquest"! The importance of these 
details, both for the illustration and defence of the 
book, must be my apology for the length of the 
quotations which I have made. 

As to the authorship of the book nothing certain 
can now be determined, but some have supposed 
that the twentieth and twenty-first verses of the 
ninth chapter, which say " Mordecai wrote these 

^ Bibliotheca Sacra, October, 1889, pp. 638, 639. 
f Idem p. 646. X Idem p. 653. 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. Ill 

things and sent letters unto all the Jews that were 
in all the provinces of the King Ahasuerus, to stab- 
lish this among them that they should keep the 
fourteenth day of the month Adar, and the fifteenth 
day of the same year yearly," are equivalent to an 
assertion that Mordecai was the author. The ref- 
erence of these verses, however, is to the establish- 
ment of the feast of Purim, and they are too nar- 
row a foundation on which to build the inference 
that he wrote the whole book, however otherwise 
probable that may have been. Others have as- 
cribed its production to Ezra, and others still to 
Joiakim the high-priest ; but these are only guesses, 
as also is the opinion of Rawlinson *" that " it was 
written by a younger contemporary of Mordecai, 
who put the facts on record towards the middle of 
the reign of Artaxerxes Longimanus, when they 
were in danger of being forgotten by the passing 
away of the generation that had witnessed them." 
The writer has kept his own name, as such, out of 
his book, as well as the name of God. For what 
reason he has done so, or who he was, or in what 
circumstances he wrote — all these are equally un- 
known. But the book itself is not discredited any 
more than is the Epistle to the Hebrews, by its 
being anonymous, for it bears throughout the 
marks of its veracity. As we have seen, the name 
Achashverosh is the exact transliteration into He- 

* Speaker^ s Commentary, vol. iii., p. 470. 



112 ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

brew of the Persian name of Xerxes; its chronol- 
ogy harmonizes exactly with that elsewhere given 
of the early years of that monarch's reign, and his 
character as depicted here is precisely parallel with 
that which comes out in other histories of his 
doings, while the descriptions of the manners and 
customs of the Persian court are so minute and so 
accurate as to convey the impression that the story 
in which these occur is thoroughly authentic. It 
is indeed true that we have no direct confirmation 
of the narrative from profane history, but no other 
book treats of the same times in such a way as to 
come into comparison with it. As Rawlinson has 
said : " No contradiction is to be found between it 
and the established facts of history. On the con- 
trary, the narrative is in harmony with those facts : 
completes very happily the portraiture of Xerxes 
and his court; agrees with, but goes beyond, the 
descriptions of Persian life and manners which 
have otherv^ise come down to us ; has the air of 
being by a contemporary ; and if untrue, might 
have easily been proved to be untrue at the time 
when it was published, by reference to the extant 
' book of the chronicles of the Kings of Media and 
Persia,' which it quotes." ^ Nor must we forget that 
the feast of Purim has been observed by the Jews 
annually from the very time of the occurrences 
which are here recorded down to our own days, 

* Speaker's Commentary, vol. iii. , p. 472. 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. II3 

and is thus, to the incidents of the Book of Esther, 
what the Passover is to the Exodus, or the Lord's 
Supper to the passion of our Saviour. 

On the whole, therefore, we conclude that though 
the author of this book is unknown, its credibility 
and canonical authority are thoroughly established ; 
that the facts \vhich it records occurred in the 
reign of Xerxes, otherwise known to us as the un- 
successful invader of Greece ; that its chronological 
place among the books of the Bible is after Daniel, 
and the first six chapters of Ezra ; and that it nar- 
rates the history of an important crisis in the ex- 
perience of the Jews of the dispersion, just sixteen 
years before Artaxerxes issued the letter v/hich 
Ezra carried with him to the governors beyond the 
river, and twenty-nine years before Nehemiah ex- 
changed for a season his post of cup-bearer in the 
palace of Shushan for that of restorer and gov- 
ernor of Jerusalem. 

We have thus taken our historical bearings, and 
may nov/ intelligently proceed to the exposition of 
the book itself. But we cannot enter upon that 
nov/, and we conclude these preliminary state- 
ments with Matthew Henry's somewhat quaint yet 
very pertinent and pithy summary to this effect. 
" It is the narrative of a plot laid against the Jews, 
to cut them off, and wonderfully disappointed by 
a concurrence of providences. The most compen- 
dious exposition of it will be to read it deliberately 
altogether at one sitting ; for the latter events ex- 



114 ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

pound the former, and show what Providence in- 
tended in them. . . . The particulars are not only 
surprising and very entertaining, but edifying and 
very encouraging to the faith and hope of God's 
people, in the most difficult and dangerous times. 
We cannot now expect such miracles to be wrought 
for us as were for Israel when they were brought 
out of Egypt ; but we may expect that in such 
ways as God here took to defeat Haman's plot, 
He will still protect His people. . . . The whole story 
confirms the Psalmist's observation : The wicked 
plotteth against the just, and gnasheth upon him 
with his teeth. The Lord shall laugh at him; for 
He seeth that His day is coming." * 



II. 

A GREAT FEAST, AND WHAT CAME OF IT. 
Esther I., 1-22. 

After the full description of Shushan the palace, 
given in the last lecture, there is no need now to 
say more concerning the place at which the feast 
described in this opening chapter was held. The 
festivities lasted, as we are told, for a hundred and 

* Psalms xxxvii., 12, 13. 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. II5 

eighty days, and the long continuance of such oc- 
casions among the Persians has been particularly 
remarked upon by ancient writers. But probably 
the statement in the narrative before us does not 
imply that precisely the same persons sat down in 
the same gorgeously pillared banquet-hall day after 
day for half a year. For the guests were " all the 
princes and servants, the power of Persia and Me- 
dia, the nobles and princes of the provinces ;" and 
it is hardly likely that all the chief representatives 
of the Emperor, from India to Ethiopia, were simul- 
taneously absent for so long a time from their seats 
of government. It may be that they came in re- 
lays, and that as the first comers went, others took 
their places ; while as these departed they were re- 
placed by others, until all of them had been received 
and entertained. Perhaps, therefore, the writer 
simply means to say that the festive time lasted 
for half a year ; that during all these six months 
state banquets were frequent ; that at their close, 
the object contemplated by the Emperor having 
been attained, a fete of seven days was given to the 
inhabitants of Shushan itself, and that in the gar- 
dens surrounding the palace they were regaled with 
the choicest meats and the richest wines, while all 
around them were the most gorgeous fabrics which 
skill could make or wealth could purchase. 

Now, concerning this great festival, some particu- 
lars are noteworthy. The occasion on which it was 
held must not be lost sight of, though the author of 



Il6 ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

this book passes it over in silence. It was the third 
year of the reign of Xerxes. Now, we know from 
the Greek historian Herodotus that in tliat very- 
year Xerxes " summoned a council of the principal 
Persians, as well to hear their opinions as to declare 
his own," on the matter of the invasion of Greece. 
At first, on his accession to the throne, we are told 
that "he showed little disposition to make war 
against Greece, and turned his thoughts to the re- 
duction of Egypt;" but after he had succeeded in 
Egypt, he was all the more inclined to listen to the 
advice of his cousin Mardonius, and seek to punish 
the Athenians for the defeat of his father at Mara- 
thon. Accordingly, at the council assembled in 
Shushan, he declared his purpose " to lay a bridge 
over the Hellespont, and to transport an army into 
Greece that he might punish the Athenians for the 
injuries they had done to the Persians and to his 
father." Nay, not content with that, he added: 
" I intend, with your concurrence, to march through 
all the parts of Europe, and to reduce the whole 
earth into one empire ; being well assured that no 
city or nation of the world will dare to resist my arms 
after the reduction of those I have mentioned." * 
He was opposed by his uncle, Artabanus, but 
ultimately, under the influence of Mardonius and 
some illusory oracles which fell in with his own 
ambition, the die was cast and the decision was 

* See Herodotus, Book VII. , passim. 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. 11/ 

made to prepare for and carry out the invasion of 
Greece with such an army as the world had never 
before seen. 

Now, it was in connection with this determination, 
and in order, as I believe, to give the greatest pos- 
sible impulse to the carrying out of the enterprise 
so resolved on, that this long-continued fete was 
held. The author of the Book of Esther, indeed, 
m.erely says that his desire was " to show the riches 
of his glorious kingdom and the honor of his excel- 
lent majesty;" but that is in nowise inconsistent 
with the supposition that his purpose in showing 
these things was to give eclat to the undertaking on 
which he was entering, and to remxove from the 
minds of his satraps all misgivings concerning its 
success. He wanted to produce in them the con- 
viction that with such resources as he had at his 
command, it was impossible that he should fail. 
This accounts for the magnificent scale on which 
everything was done. The pillars- were of marble ; 
the couches were of gold ; the pavement was of 
tessellated marble •, there was royal wine without 
stint, and each one drank out of a vessel of gold, 
which was of a different design from all the rest. 
Everything was luxuriant and expensive. Ostenta- 
tion was the order of the day. The great end 
which the monarch had in view was to make a dis- 
play, and he made it with more than the usual Ori- 
ental regardlessness of cost, so that there might not 
be left in any mind a single lingering suspicion of 



Il8 ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

the sufficiency of his resources for the great expedi- 
tion to which he was summoning his subjects. It 
looks supremely foolish, but it is a folly that keeps 
its ground to this day even in western lands — where 
it is still the fashion for men to banquet themselves 
into^ enthusiasm for some great railway enterprise 
or some party campaign. Truly, we have not learned 
so much in these modern days as we think we have, 
and it might be wisdom in us to unlearn a few of the 
extravagances in which we are so prone to indulge. 
But one feature of this feast given by Xerxes 
strikes us as praiseworthy. It is said that "the 
drinking was according to the law, none did com- 
pel." All were left to do according to their own 
pleasure. He that partook did not despise him 
who abstained, and he that abstained did not en- 
deavor to force his practice on him who partook. 
Each was at perfect liberty to do as his own judg- 
ment dictated. Now, when we contrast that with 
the custom which used to be maintained by our 
fathers, of pressing guests to drink whether they 
would or not, until it became difficult — almost im- 
possible, for them, indeed, decently to refuse — we 
must confess that the difference is all in favor of 
the ancient Persians ; and the statement here made 
reminds us of an incident which is said to have oc- 
curred at the table of Queen Victoria in one of the 
early years of her reign. The temperance move- 
ment was then just beginning to make its way into 
the upper classes of English society, and on the 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. II9 

occasion to which I refer, a British nobleman, well 
known for his activity in all good causes, declined 
to comply with the request of one of his fellow- 
guests that he should drink wine with him, where- 
upon the appeal was made to her Majesty that she 
should assert her authority in the case ; but she no- 
bly replied, in the spirit of this Persian law, " There 
shall be no compulsion at my table ;" and that re- 
ply did much to discountenance the old custom of 
badgering, and browbeating, and insisting upon 
guests to drink out of regard for their hosts until 
they felt themselves in a position where it was dif- 
ficult to refuse, and v/ere virtually compelled either 
to act against their better judgment, or to do that 
which was considered rude and unmannerly. We 
have reason to be thankful that, alike in Great Brit- 
ain and in this land, the Temperance Reformation 
has gained such a footing that now, as Dr. Raleigh 
says,* "within the whole sphere of what is called 
society, anything approaching compulsion would 
not be tolerated, and, in fact, is never attempted." 
Much more is needed, as we shall presently see, 
before we shall have succeeded in purging ourselves 
from the plague of intemperance ; but that is at 
least one point gained, and the gaining of that is 
due, more than to any other influence among us, 
to the efforts of our temperance societies. 

Another feature of this feast was the absence of 

* The Book of Esther : Its Practical Lessons and Dramatic 
Scenes. By Alexander Raleigh, D.D. p. 15. 



120 ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

the ladies from the board. They had their own 
festival, indeed, but they held it by themselves ; be- 
cause then, as indeed they are throughout the East 
until this day, the women were kept in uttermost se- 
clusion, and, according to the public opinion of the 
time, it would have been in the highest degree im- 
modest for any of them to be present on such an 
occasion as the banquet given by the Emperor to 
the inhabitants of Shushan. It was no great priva- 
tion to the ladies, but their absence was fraught 
with danger to the men, for it left them without any 
check to indulge to the full in the revelries of the 
hour ; and in bygone times among ourselves it was 
only after the ladies had left the table that the men 
permitted themselves to drink to excess, and to re- 
tail stories that were utterly unfit for modest women 
to hear or a modest man to tell. It is to be feared 
that this is the case still in some circles that call 
themselves polite, but it ought everywhere to be 
frowned upon and put down. 

In the case before us, the law that none should 
be compelled to drink v/as largely neutralized by 
the example of Xerxes himself, for towards the end 
of the feast he became heated with wine, and then 
was guilty of an act which stamps him as essential- 
ly a low, sensual, and unfeeling tyrant ; for he gave 
orders that Vashti, his queen, his favorite wife and 
the chief inmate of his harem, should appear among 
the revellers ^'with the crown royal, to show the 
people and the princes her beauty." His design 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. 121 

apparently was that she should come unveiled, in 
order that all should envy him the possession of 
such a lovely wife. If Ahasuerus is to be identified 
with Xerxes, it is probable that Vashti is the same 
as the Amestris who is spoken of by the Greeks as 
the wife of Xerxes, and whom he must have wed- 
ded before his accession to the throne. But how- 
ever that may have been, the command of the 
King required her to do what was inconsistent 
with national usage, and as such would have been 
regarded as a violation of her modesty. Her obe- 
dience to it would have degraded her not only in 
her own estimation, but also in that of the whole 
community. According to the public sentiment of 
the time, she could not view the order otherwise 
than as an insult to her womanhood and a slur upon 
her honor. Therefore she set it at defiance, and 
refused " to come at the King's commandment." 

Opinions have differed concerning the wisdom 
of her conduct, and some, who apparently think 
it needful to degrade Vashti in order to exalt Es- 
ther, have condemned her for her disobedience. 
But, for my part, I consider it worthy of all praise, 
and hold that she was entirely right in what she 
did. It is true that by the appointment of God 
the husband is the head of the wife, but the head- 
ship is not absolute and autocratic. Here, too, the 
government must be constitutional and within lim- 
its which have been fixed by the Lord himself. No 
husband has a right to command a wife to do that 



12 2 ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

which is wrong, and liberty of conscience ought to 
be as sacred in the home as in the State. In all 
matters of indifference morally, in all questions of 
mere prudence, in all affairs of management and 
detail where no principle is involved, if there should 
be an honest difference of opinion between the two, 
the will of the husband should be carried out, and 
no true wife will ever think of doing otherwise ; but 
where conscience is concerned, where principle is 
at stake, where character is affected, the wife should 
be left to act upon her own convictions, and no 
right-thinking husband would ask her to do other- 
wise. This, as it seems to me, is the constitution 
on which household government rests ; and though 
it is always an evidence that there is something 
radically wrong when the matter comes to be dis- 
puted, yet the knowledge of these limits may keep 
things from coming to such a pass, and may lead 
to that mutual respect for each other's convictions 
as to duty which is essential alike to domestic peace 
and to loyalty to God on the part both of husband 
and wife. 

The reply of Vashti set Xerxes on fire with rage ; 
and his counsellors being, like himself, heated with 
wine, and so all the more likely to be the mere 
"dittoes" of their master, did not mend matters 
by their advice. To think of conquering Greece 
while he allowed a woman to set him at defiance 
was in their view absolutely absurd. They feared, 
withal, that the spirit of Vashti might become in- 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. 1 23 

fectious and spread throughout their own harems, 
and so they insisted that Xerxes should put Vashti 
away, and gave also a recommendation, the result 
of which is thus recorded : " The saying pleased 
the king and the princes ; and the king did accord- 
ing to the word of Memucan : for he sent letters 
into all the king's provinces, into every province 
according to the writing thereof, and to every peo- 
ple after their language, that every man should bear 
rule in his own house, and that it should be pub- 
lished according to the language of every people." 
What a " ridiculous mouse " is this, as the fruit of 
such " labor " in the " mountains !" One can hardly 
keep from laughing outright as he reads the words. 
Truly, family government is near an end when it 
needs to be bolstered up by an imperial decree ! 
And what mere edict can make a man worthy to 
bear rule in his own house ? for, after all, the gist 
of the matter lies there. A man must rule himself 
first, if he would regulate well the affairs of his own 
household, and for self-rule something else is need- 
ed than an imperial decree. " Truly," as Dr. Kitto 
says, " one is amazed at the infantine simplicity of 
these famous sages in recommending the issue of a 
royal decree, in all the languages of this great em- 
pire, ' that every man should bear rule in his own 
house.' This is undoubtedly one of the most amus- 
ing things in all history. One cannot but imagine 
the inextinguishable burst of shrill merriment which 
rang through every one of ' the hundred and twen- 



124 ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

ty-seven ' provinces of the Persian empire when this 
sage decree was promulgated."* It must be that 
Ahasuerus and Xerxes are identical, for only one 
who could imagine that he could bind the Helles- 
pont with a few iron fetters, could have supposed 
that he could reduce women into absolutely passive 
submission to the autocracy of their husbands by 
the publication of an edict ! Not thus is domestic 
peace or household happiness to be attained. When 
the law comes into that relationship, alas ! it is to 
divide and not to unite ; and when the apostle's 
command, " Husbands, love your wives, even as 
Christ loved the church and gave himself for it," 
is faithfully obeyed by those to whom it is address- 
ed, there will be no need of a civil enactment to en- 
force this other : " Therefore as the church is sub- 
ject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own 
husbands in everything." But if a man makes him- 
self heated with wine, and issues orders that are 
abominable, he only makes himself ridiculous when 
he talks of his determination "to rule his own 
house." He has ceased to be the ruler of him- 
self ; and if a man know not how to be that, he is 
incapable of ruling his house. 

But now let us pick up a few lessons from this 
old history that may be useful to us in our daily 
lives. And, first of all, we are reminded by the in- 
cidents which have passed under our review that 

* Daily Bible Illustrations y vol. iv. , p. 487. 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. 125 

over-confidence is the forerunner of failure. The 
proverb says that "pride goeth before destruction, 
and a haughty spirit before a fall ;" and Ahab 
showed more wisdom than was common with him 
w^hen he sent to Ben-hadad this message : " Tell 
him, Let not him that girdeth on his harness boast 
himself as he that putteth it off.'"^ With an empire 
so large as to be already unwieldy, Xerxes might 
well have been content with what he had ; yet he 
must needs seek to wipe out the disgrace of his fa- 
ther's defeat at Marathon by the Greeks, and try 
for universal empire for himself. But as the unsuc- 
cessful gambler stakes more heavily than before, 
thinking to recover thereby all that he has lost, and 
ends by losing more heavily than ever, so Xerxes 
suffered a more disgraceful defeat than his father. 
The little country of Greece hurled back his legions 
in dismay, and wrought prodigies of valor which 
have been for an inspiration to all who have battled 
for freedom in the world ever since, and which have 
made the name of Thermopylae everlastingly re- 
nowned, while the defeat of his fleet at Salamis, 
even though he sat himself upon a lofty throne in 
sight of all his ships to stir his sailors to enthusiasm 
by his presence, was so speedy and so complete as 
to give point to Byron's lines : 

A king sat on the rocky brow 
That looks o'er sea-born Salamis, 

* I Kings XX., II. 



126 ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

And ships in thousands lay below 

And men in nations — all were his ; 
He counted them at break of day, 
But when the sun set, where were they? 

Nor are we without an interest in the victory they 
won, for it was one of the decisive days of the world, 
and but for it Oriental despotism might still have 
brooded over the fairest countries of Europe, and 
the whole history of the world been changed. Now, 
I do not say that Xerxes failed simply because he 
was so confident that he would succeed ; or that if 
he had begun his campaign of invasion with less of 
ostentation and bravado he would have conquered. 
But the issue of his expedition contrasts very sug- 
gestively with the braggadocio of its beginning, and 
is a warning to all not to rejoice over a victory un- 
til it has been won. There have been many similar 
cases in history. As we read the account of this 
banquet, we cannot help thinking of the spirit in 
which the first Napoleon began his march to Rus- 
sia, and the terrible result of his obstinate rashness 
on that occasion. Nor can we forget how within 
these last few weeks * the King Milan, of Servia, 
has been reproved for his Thrasonic declaration, 
that he would keep his birthday in Sofia, the capi- 
tal of Bulgaria. But the lesson is good for other de- 
partments than that of war, and it reads thus, Young 
man, don't say with conceited boasting what you will 

* This was written in January, i886. 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. 12/ 

do, but do it, and let the deed speak both for itself 
and you. See first, however, that it be a deed worth 
doing, and not merely the gratification of a selfish 
and unscrupulous ambition. 

But, in the second place, let us note here the evils 
of intemperance. If Xerxes had not been " heated 
with wine," he never would have given such an or- 
der to Vashti. Mark the phrase " heated with wine." 
It does not say that he was actually drunk. I call 
your attention to that, because I believe that a vast 
deal of evil is wrought in the world by drinking that 
is short of intoxication. As McCrie has admirably 
put it, "There is a difference between not being in- 
toxicated and being sober. A person may be able 
to speak and to walk, and yet may be guilty of excess 
in the use of strong drink. He may not have lost 
the use of his senses, and yet have lost the sound 
use of his senses." * It is my firm belief that the 
great majority of accidents in the use of machinery 
or of dangerous agencies, such as steam, electricity, 
and the like, is due to this kind of drinking. The 
man has taken enough to disturb the balance of his 
nature. His conceit and confidence are stimulated ; 
his judgment is weakened ; his will is stiffened, and 
he is made reckless when otherwise he would have 
been cautious. If an inquiry were to be held, it 
could not be affirmed by any one that he was drunk. 
But, for all that, he had been guilty of what for him 

* Lectures on Esther. By Thomas McCrie, D.D., American 
edition, pp. 31, 32. 



128 ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

was excess. Now, in these circumstances, does not 
prudence dictate that the man should let it alone 
altogether ? His own safety and the safety of oth- 
ers are imperilled by his partaking of it even in what 
others w^ould call moderation, and therefore he ought 
always to be on his guard ; and as the surest means 
of keeping right, he had better abstain entirely. 

But if that be so with drinking that is short of 
intoxication, what must be said of the actual drunk- 
enness which is so rampant in the midst of us ? It 
is a large question, and I cannot discuss it fully 
here. Let me only remark that the question has 
three departments, according as we look at the drunk- 
ard's appetite, the drinking customs, and the liquor 
trade. Now, as to the first of these : when a man is 
held in the grasp of the drunkard's appetite there is 
no cure for him save in absolute and entire absti- 
nence. His indulgence has so diseased his body 
that he cannot taste it without having created in 
him an irresistible craving for more. Clearly, there- 
fore, he should never touch it again ; and to encour- 
age him in taking that course Christian love should 
prompt others to take it with him, and to say, " If 
drink make my brother to offend, I will drink no 
wine while the world stands. It is good neither to 
drink wine nor to do anything whereby a brother 
stumbleth or is made weak." That is the true 
Scriptural ground on which the total abstinence 
movement rests, and to put it on any other basis is 
to weaken its appeal to Christian men. 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. 1 29 

Looking now at the drinking customs, the cure is 
to abolish and discredit them. I think it is capable 
of proof that the existing customs in the matter of 
drink are very largely responsible for the manufact- 
ure of drunkards. So long as strong drink is the rec- 
ognized medium of showing kindness or hospitality 
to a friend or companion, so long shall we have to 
deplore the fall of many young and noble men into 
intemperate habits. Therefore, smite these cus- 
toms as with the hammer of Thor. Destroy them 
out of society and the land. Put away strong drink 
from the table as a beverage, and never conform to 
the custom of indulging in it as a mere libation to 
fashion. Why should a man to whom you have 
shov/n a kindness say to you, " Come and have a 
drink," and you do not laugh at him as you would 
if he said, " Here is a baker's shop ; come and have 
a cake ?" Or why would everybody laugh at me at a 
banquet if I should say, " Let us eat to the health of 
the President," and should hold up the wing of a 
chicken on the point of my fork for the purpose; 
while if I should say, " Let us drink to the health of 
the President," everybody would cheer ? Intrinsi- 
cally the one is as ridiculous as the other. Only the 
custom makes the difference, and that custom car- 
ries drunkenness with it as its lawful progeny. 
Dethrone the customs, therefore, and set some- 
thing worthier in their room. Much has been 
done in this way already, but there is need for 
the doing of a great deal more, and no patriot 
6* 



130 ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

should be reluctant to put his hand to such a 
work. 

Then, last of all, there comes in the trade aspect 
of the case. The trade is licensed by the law. In 
one view that may mean that it is encouraged by 
the law ; and it does seem very inconsistent to 
license people to sell strong drink, and then to 
keep a staff of policemen, and judges, and a whole 
assortment of prisons for dealing with those who 
are demoralized by their wares. But, on the other 
side of it, a licensed trade is a trade already re- 
stricted ; it is a trade prohibited to all who are 
not licensed. It is, therefore, prohibition so far 
forth ; and so in every license law the principle is 
involved that the State has the right to prohibit 
that which it licenses only a certain number to do. 
Thus the principle of prohibition is already recog- 
nized. Ought we, therefore, to have total prohibi- 
tion immediately ? To that I answer. Let us have 
it just so far and so soon as the public sentiment 
will sustain its enforcement. We must not forget 
that a State enactment in and of itself will not 
secure obedience in this case any more than it could 
secure in the case of Xerxes that every man should 
bear rule in his own house. Any law is dead until 
the breath of public opinion is breathed into it, 
and then it lives. And if with your law you go far 
ahead of public opinion, you thereby provoke a re- 
action, and therefore injure rather than advance 
your cause. What we have to do, therefore, in the 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. 13I 

matter of legislation of a prohibitory character, is, 
when public opinion has forced the wheel round to 
a certain point, to put on the ratchet of a law and 
hold it there, with no backward movement possible, 
until we are ready for another advance, and thus, 
step by step, we shall get on towards the goal that 
so many desire to reach. Meanwhile every man 
can pass a prohibitory law on himself, and enforce 
that if he will — and that will prove his own sincer- 
ity in the matter. 

Finally, we are reminded here of the great change 
which the gospel has wrought on the position of 
woman. The separation of the sexes in this feast, 
and the insult shown to Vashti, are only typical of 
the treatment to which woman has been subjected in 
all heathen lands. Wherever the gospel has not gone, 
woman has been degraded into a slave and ground 
down beneath the galling tyranny of her husband. 
The barbarian of the East and the savage of the 
West have been alike in this, that they have driven 
the weakest to the wall, and she who was designed 
to be a helpmeet and companion to her husband — 
doubling his joys, dividing his sorrows, and throw- 
ing a halo for him round his home — has been tram- 
pled under the hoof of cruelty and branded with 
the scars of violence. We are far enough yet from 
what we ought to be in this respect even in our 
own Christian land, but there is even among us an 
immense improvement over the state of things in 
Ancient Greece and Rome, as well as over the con- 



132 ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

dition of matters at this day in Turkey and Hindo- 
stan ; and the change has been entirely due to the 
Gospel of Christ. Not by any sudden and violent 
upheaval indeed was it effected. Had it been so, 
the civilized world would have been more conscious 
of its obligation to the Lord Jesus for it. But silent- 
ly, gently, almost imperceptibly, the influence of 
Christianity filtered into the family, and there, touch- 
ing the main-spring of our human life, it has purified 
and ennobled society at large. " What women these 
Christians have," said a Pagan orator, who had been 
a teacher of Chrysostom, with a true perception of 
the influence of the gospel on them, for the religion 
of Jesus gave dignity to womanhood, holiness to 
motherhood, and happiness to the home. And, as 
an eloquent friend has said, " It is a fact significant 
for the past, prophetic for the future, that even as 
Dante measured his successive ascents in Paradise, 
not by immediate consciousness of movement, but 
by seeing an ever lovelier beauty in the face of 
Beatrice, so the race now counts the gradual steps 
of its spiritual progress out of the ancient heavy 
gloom towards the glory of the Christian millennium, 
not by mechanisms nor cities, but by the ever new 
grace and force exhibited by the woman, who was 
for ages either the decorated toy of man or his de- 
spised and abject drudge.'"^ My sisters, have you 

* The Divine Origin of Christianity , by R. S. Storrs, D.D,, 
p. 156. 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. 1 33 

not in this a new reason why you should value the 
gospel and be loyal to its Lord? And you, my 
brothers, who have so largely profited by this social 
regeneration, will you not hold with a firmer hand, 
because of all this, the truth, which the anarchists 
of these days are seeking to wrench out of your 
grasp ? 



III. 

THE ORPHAN MAIDEN. 
Esther II. 

When in their progress westward the kings of 
Assyria or Babylon had subdued any important 
city or territory, they adopted the plan of carrying 
its inhabitants to some of their eastern possessions, 
and supplying their places by colonists sent from 
other provinces. In this way certain results valua- 
ble to the conquerors, at least, were secured. They 
filled the conquered place with settlers on whose 
loyalty they could rely, and thus freed themselves 
from the necessity of constantly occupying it with 
a large armed force ; they peopled the great cities 
which they were building in the East with inhabit- 
ants, and by removing the captives from their homes 
and scattering them over a wide area, they broke 
up the sentiment of nationality among them, so 



134 ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

that within two or three generations they came, for 
the most part, to be merged in the general popula- 
tion of the empire. 

While, however, this method of deporting a con- 
quered community from their own land to another 
is called a captivity, we should err if we were to 
suppose that the exiles were held in slavery, prop- 
erly so called. They were, indeed, prevented from 
returning to their own country, but in every other 
respect they were treated like the other subjects of 
the empire. So far as appears in history, no inter- 
ference with their religious belief or worship was 
attempted, save on very rare occasions, and posts 
of honor and emolument were as open to them as 
they were to others. They were thus encouraged 
to become identified with the empire, and were, as 
a rule, treated in such a way as to bind them as 
firmly as possible to the throne. 

By such captivities in the year 740 or 741 B.C., 
and again in the year 720 b.c, the ten tribes of Is- 
rael were carried away by the kings of Assyria, and 
so thoroughly were they amalgamated with those 
among whom they were dispersed that all efforts to 
trace out their subsequent history have been thus 
far in vain. Rather more than a century later a 
similar fate befell the tribes of the kingdom of 
Judah, who were carried away at different times 
by the rulers of Babylon. Seven such captivities 
in all have been enumerated by historians, but of 
these three have been considered more important 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. 1 35 

than the others. The first was in 605 b.c, when 
Daniel and his companions were among those re- 
moved ; the second in 598 or 597 B.C., when Jeco- 
niah, otherwise called Jehoiachin, with all the no- 
bles, military officers, and skilled artificers were 
taken away ; and the third in 582 B.C., when Zede- 
kiah was led away blind and childless to the me- 
tropolis of his conqueror, and Jerusalem was laid 
waste. 

Following Jeremiah's advice that they should 
seek the peace of the land to which they should be 
carried,* the great majority of the captives settled 
down in their new homes to business pursuits, and 
some of them rose to the highest offices about the 
court and in the empire ; so that when, in conse- 
quence of the edict of Cyrus, Zerubbabel set out 
with a large number of his countrymen on their re- 
turn to Jerusalem, a great many more declined to 
accompany him, and preferred to remain in the 
places which had now become their homes. No 
formal condemnation is anywhere in Scripture pro- 
nounced upon those who thus stayed behind ; but 
we may infer that, as a rule, but with striking ex- 
ceptions, such as Daniel and Nehemiah, they were 
largely indifferent to the restoration of the Temple 
and worship of their fathers. They were neither the 
most patriotic nor the most spiritual of their peo- 
ple ; but still they preserved their distinctiveness, 

* Jeremiah xxix., 7. 



136 ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

and were as really separate from those among whom 
they resided as the Jews are to - day among our- 
selves. 

Now it is to one of these, Mordecai by name, that 
we are introduced in the narrative which lies before 
us this evening. His great-grandfather Kish, a Ben- 
jamite, as we might have concluded from his name, 
even if the record had not clearly told us, had been 
carried away 114 or 115 years before the date of 
our story, along with Jehoiachin the King of Judah. 
This is itself an evidence that he belonged to the 
better portion of the Jews, for only those who might 
be called the upper classes were taken to Babylon 
at that time. How it fared with him and his house- 
hold we have now no means of knowing, but here 
we come upon his great-grandson, settled in the 
city of Shushan. What he did there before he ob- 
tained the office which required him to sit in the 
gate of the King, or whether he at this time held 
that office, we cannot tell. But we infer that he was 
in comfortable circumstances, and we are warranted 
also in saying that he had a kindly heart ; for we 
find under his roof an orphan cousin, whom he had 
adopted as his ward, and whom he had supported 
and educated from a very tender age. Her father, 
Abihail, was the son of Shimei and brother of Jair,* 
so he was the uncle of Mordecai ; and when he and 
his wife died, leaving their daughter without any 

* Esther ii., 15 ; ix., 29. 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. 137 

earthly protector, Mordecai " took her for his own 
daughter," and " brought her up." At the date of 
this chapter it is probable that he was about forty 
years of age, and his maiden cousin about twenty. 
She had grown up into a beautiful woman, answer- 
ing alike to her Hebrew name, Hadassah, which 
means Myrtle, and her Persian designation, Esther, 
which means a star. It is delightful to come in 
such a place on such a manifestation of kindness 
as that shown by Mordecai to Esther. He might 
have shaken her off, on the plea that he could do 
nothing with a girl, or on the ground that she had 
no legal claim upon him, or on some manufactured 
pretext ; but instead, he opened his heart and his 
home for her admission, and we do not doubt that 
she carried a blessing with her to her guardian's 
house. If she increased his care she would also 
double his happiness, and in his nights of affliction 
or distress her " starry " radiance would cheer him 
with its sparkling lustre, while her budding beauty 
would be to him a constant joy. 

But, alas ! that very beauty v/as to bring to an 
end the idyllic sweetness of this pure and holy 
home life. For now we must return to Xerxes. 
After the feast was over and Vashti had been dis- 
placed, and the monarch began to realize what he 
had done when he had decreed that " she should 
come no more before him," he missed his favorite 
wife — for, as we may well believe from the spirit 
which she showed when he insulted her with his 



138 ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

drunken command, she had been more to him than 
a mere beautiful toy, and her companionship had 
been both profitable and delightful. He began to 
feel that he had been hasty, and possibly there were 
thoughts of recalling and reinstating her shaping 
themselves in his mind. But if she returned to her 
old place, woe betide those who had counselled 
Xerxes to put her away ; for then their time would 
come, and their destruction would be sure and 
swift. So, for their own protection, they counselled 
the King to take steps for putting another into her 
place ; and the advice they gave shows what sort 
of men they were and what sort of master they 
served, as well as what sort of time they lived in. 
We need not go into the particulars ; suffice it to 
say that they resulted in the levying of a ^' maiden 
tribute" from all the provinces of the empire for 
the gratification of the royal lust, and that he might 
choose from among them a successor to Vashti. 
Among those thus taken from their homes to the 
royal seraglio for that purpose was the beautiful 
Esther. Some have supposed that this change in 
Esther's life was brought about by the diplomacy 
of Mordecai; others have argued that it was with 
his consent, and some have even gone so far in 
absurdity as to affirm that Mordecai, in procuring 
the admission of Esther into the harem, was acting 
under special Divine guidance. But all these opin- 
ions are wide of the mark. The real, but terribly 
sad truth was, that when the officers, appointed to 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. I39 

gather together all the fair young virgins into Shu- 
shan the palace, saw Esther, they took possession 
of her, without asking either her consent or Morde- 
cai's, in the King's name, and carried her away, 
just as they would have done with any chattel that 
was required for the payment of a tax. The auto- 
cratic theory was that all subjects belonged to the 
King, to be used at his pleasure ; and this was only 
one particular instance under that general law. It 
would have made no matter, therefore, whether ei- 
ther Mordecai or Esther protested or not, for the 
King was absolute and his will was law. We do 
not know, however, that they did protest or resist ; 
and it may have been that they had become them- 
selves so demoralized by the impure moral atmos- 
phere of the place in which they lived as to count 
that an honor which Scripture teaches us to regard 
as the foulest dishonor; and it is when we come 
into contact with narratives like this, that we are 
most fully reminded of what Christ has done for 
the defence and protection of the female sex. Still, 
it does not become even us to be Pharisaic on this 
matter. We may not forget the astounding and hor- 
rible revelations made recently in London, which 
caused a shudder all over England and the Chris- 
tian world ; nor may we shut our eyes to the exist- 
ence among ourselves of that which has been 
emphatically called "the great sin of our great 
cities." In some respects the state of things in 
Shushan was better even than it is in our modern 



140 ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

Babylons, for those who had been thus dishonored 
by the monarch were supported all through their 
after-lives by him, as secondary wives, while, alas ! 
the victims of the seducers of these days are cast 
aside after a time, to sink down and down and 
down, until they become street waifs, with scarce a 
remnant of womanhood left in them, and such that 

' ' The veriest wretch that goes shivering by 
Will make a wide sweep lest they wander too nigh," 

while few care for them in any respect, and least 
of all, those to whom first they owed their degrada- 
tion. We talk of Mormonism and its polygamy, 
and we cannot say anything too strong against that 
abomination whose rise and progress is the shame 
of our nineteenth century, but it were easier to 
deal with that if there was not this kindred wicked- 
ness in our own city life ; and I earnestly lift up 
my voice in warning against the danger which all 
this bodes to our national existence. These evils 
are no better than those which we find here in 
Persia long ago ; but with us they exist in spite of 
Christianity and are emphatically condemned by it, 
while with them they were the legitimate results of 
the religion which they professed, and that makes 
all the difference. Let us therefore bring our 
Christianity to bear in this direction, for that alone 
will meet the case. Young men, I beseech you to 
set your faces as a flint against all such things, 
and let all those who are secretly indulging in in- 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. I4I 

iquity of this sort remember that God will one day 
bring them into judgment with Him. It is a seri- 
ous thing to poison the well-head of family life, and 
the frescos of Pompeii explain all too well the 
downfall of the Roman empire. For your own 
sakes, therefore, for the sake of the nation, and for 
the sake of Christ, keep yourselves pure, and be- 
ware of becoming in any way partaker of other 
men's sins, by allowing their wealth, or position, or 
respectability in society to condone for you the in- 
famy of their sensuality. We turn with loathing 
from a murderer — why not from an adulterer ? for 
the one is as really a breaker of the decalogue as 
the other. It is not agreeable to have to say these 
things, but it is needful to say them, and I dare 
not keep silence. 

On Esther's entrance into the harem she found 
a friend in Hegai, the keeper of the maidens, and 
as the result of this abominable competition she 
was ultimately exalted to the place of Vashti. A 
great feast was given in her honor ; but probably, 
because of his former experiences, Xerxes was more 
prudent on this occasion, for we do not read of any 
such excesses as those which issued in the idiotic 
order which Vashti refused to obey. But it is not 
safe for an Eastern monarch to disgrace one who 
has been at the head of his harem, and just after 
the account of his exaltation of Esther, we read 
of a plot which was made by two of his chamber- 
lains against the life of Xerxes, and which it is 



142 ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

probable had been concocted in the interest of 
Vashti. Be that, however, as it may, the existence 
of such a conspiracy was somehow detected by 
Mordecai, whom now for the first time we find 
" sitting in the King's gate " (an expression which 
simply implies [see chap, iii., 2] that he was one of 
the King's servants), and by him it was communi- 
cated to Esther, who in turn told it to the monarch. 
The matter was considered of such importance that 
a special entry regarding it was made in the chron- 
icles of the King's reign, and to Mordecai was given 
therein the credit of having been instrumental in 
saving the life of the Emperor. 

It is a curious insight which we thus get into the 
court-life of an Oriental despot, and there is little or 
nothing about it that is attractive in our eyes. 
Only two things stand out in this chapter to re- 
deem it from unmitigated vileness — these are the 
love of Mordecai for Esther, and the reverence of 
Esther for Mordecai. How touching is it to read 
these words (verse 11): "And Mordecai walked 
every day before the court of the women's house to 
know how Esther did, and what should become of 
her." I think I see him pacing to and fro in the 
front of the prison wherein she was virtually en- 
tombed, trying to find some means of communica- 
tion with her, and overjoyed if he could but catch 
one glimpse of her loveliness. " Every day " he 
came thus to satisfy himself, if possible, of her wel- 
fare, for his heart was hungry for tidings of her 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. I 43 

condition, and his home was empty of its former 
gladness. It is a beautiful picture, all the more 
affecting because of the background of selfishness 
and sin out of which it stands here in such dis- 
tinct relief. And we have the companion to it in 
verse 20: "Esther had not shewed her kindred 
nor her people, as Mordecai had charged her : for 
Esther did the commandment of Mordecai like as 
when she was brought up with him." It was a re- 
proach then, as unhappily in some quarters it still 
is, to belong to the Jewish nation, and Mordecai 
was anxious that Esther should stand simply on her 
own merits, and should not be handicapped by her 
lineage, or hindered thereby from rising to the po- 
sition which otherwise she might obtain. Nor was 
there any deceit in his advice, for, as Matthew Hen- 
ry says, "All truths are not to be spoken at all 
times, though an untruth is not to be spoken at any 
time." But with Esther it was sufficient that Mor- 
decai had laid his commands upon her to that ef- 
fect, "for she did his commandment, like as when 
she was brought up with him." So the two were 
almost as father and daughter, and Esther, far from 
looking upon her new position as one of emancipa- 
tion from the old obligation, continued to regard 
her benefactor with the deepest reverence, for she 
was sure that everything which he recommended 
was dictated by the purest affection for herself. 
These particulars were equally honorable to both, 
and they are touches of nature which, without any 



144 ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

expository help, find their way directly to the heart 
of every reader of the narrative. 

But now, before proceeding to the practical part 
of the discourse, let us look for a few minutes at 
the chronology of the chapter. The " levy " on 
the young women of the empire was made, as 
seems most natural, shortly after the putting away 
of Vashti. But in the sixteenth verse we read that 
" Esther was taken unto King Ahasuerus into the 
house royal in the tenth month, which is the month 
Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign." Now, 
the feast of the former chapter was held in the 
third year of the monarch's reign, so that there are 
four years to be accounted for ; and there would 
be considerable difficulty in filling up that gap in a 
satisfactory manner if we were to adopt the view 
formerly current that Ahasuerus is another name 
for Artaxerxes Longimanus, but if we identify him 
with Xerxes everything is plain, for during these 
years he was absent on his disastrous expedition 
against Greece. In his fourth year, as we know 
from other sources, Xerxes went on to Sardis, and 
in the spring of that which followed he set forward 
towards Europe. In the summer of that same year 
the battle of Thermopylae was fought, and in the 
autumn his fleet was defeated at Salamis. Then, 
in the year after that, came the battles of Plataea 
and Mycale. Then he returned to Sardis, whence, 
after a sojourn of some little time, he went to Susa. 
Thus the whole interval is accounted for. 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. . I45 

But in verse 19 we come upon another note of 
time which is more perplexing, for the date of the 
conspiracy against the life of Xerxes is there given 
thus: ''When the virgins were gathered together 
the second time." The reference is not very clear, 
but it is probably an event which was generally 
well known to both Jews and Persians at the time, 
and it seems to imply that even after the exaltation 
of Esther to tlie place of Vashti there was another 
levy made upon the maidens in the homes of the 
empire, similar to that which swept the orphan 
Jewess into the royal harem. It is too horrible 
to think of, but that, also, is verified by secular his- 
tory, for Herodotus tells us that Xerxes sought sol- 
ace for his terrible defeat in giving himself up to 
the grossest licentiousness. Ah ! cruel lust, would 
that this had beer? the last levy made by thy re- 
morseless tyranny on homes of happiness and 
peace ! 

Leaving now these repulsive matters, let us pause 
for a little and gather up some practical lessons 
from the whole subject. 

And, in the first place, we have, in the conduct 
of Mordecai towards Esther, a beautiful example 
of thoughtful kindness. He was moved by the 
forlorn condition of the lonely orphan and took 
her to his home, supplying her wants, giving her a 
suitable education, and training her in habits of 
obedience and piety. No doubt she was his cous- 
in, but not every cousin would have done as he 
7 



146 • ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

did. And therefore we cannot withhold from him 
our admiration. But how many Esthers there are 
in the world for whom there are no Mordecais! 
Orphanhood is a terrible privation, and there is no 
appeal so powerful as that which comes from a 
fatherless and motherless child. Do we know any- 
such that are needing help, and can we give them 
the help they need ? If so, let the example of Mor- 
decai stimulate us to do something for their sup- 
port. We have orphan asylums, indeed, but these 
are not nearly sufficient to meet the cases which 
exist, and there is always room for individual ef- 
fort. Besides, such personal beneficence is far 
better for those who engage in it than a mere 
subscription to an orphanage would be , and very 
frequently we come upon cases where those who 
are themselves little removed from the straits of 
poverty have been instrumental in doing a large 
amount of good. Not long ago there came into 
my hands the life of the Rev. Dr. David King, 
whose eloquence as a preacher was thrilling mul- 
titudes Sabbath after Sabbath in the Greyfriars 
Church when I was a student at the University of 
Glasgow, and I found this paragraph among the 
records of his pastoral experiences — an instance of 
energetic self-reliance that came under his notice 
which he used very graphically to recount : "A poor 
cab-driver had died, leaving a widow, elderly, child- 
less, and uprovided for. At his first visit he found 
her in great affliction and anxiety, which he strove 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. I47 

to relieve by temporary help and encouraging 
words. Calling again soon after to see how she 
was getting on and in what way he could best be 
useful to her, he was surprised, on reaching the 
door of her attic, to be met by a fragrant odor of 
cookery, and to be received by her with a bright 
smile as she stirred a steaming pot upon the fire. 
' I'm just making dinner for my lads,' she said, and 
he had scarcely time to ask an explanation before 
a sound was heard of hurrying feet and merry 
voices on the common stair, and in rushed a troop 
of boys, barefoot some of them, and rather ragged, 
but all perfectly clean, with happy faces, and sure 
of a welcome. He watched with interest and won- 
der while they despatched their savory meal and 
hastened off to their work again. When they were 
gone he inquired the meaning of it all. ' Weel, sir, 
she said, ' after you were here I was gaun aboot 
thinkin' what I could do, an' I saw a puir laddie 
stannin' at the corner of the street ; an', thinks I, 
he wants a mither an' I want a son ; what for 
shouldna we come thegither ? An' there's mony 
mair in the same case; why shouldna I be a mither 
to as mony o' them as my bit rooms '11 hand ?' She 
carried out her idea, gathering in from the street 
some half-dozen homeless boys, making it a condi- 
tion that they should work and bring all their earn- 
ings to her to use for the common weal. With 
clean faces, and with tattered garments mended, 
she took them one by one the round of her ac- 



148 ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

quaintance in search of honest employment, which 
she was very fortunate in obtaining. Her plan was 
to keep a strict account of the money they brought 
in, and at the end of the week, if any surplus re- 
mained after all the expenses of her thrifty house- 
keeping had been defrayed, to allot it to the differ- 
ent boys, in proportion to their earnings, and lay it 
by for their future benefit — thus wisely encouraging 
them in habits of industry and forethought. So 
tliese poor v^aifs found a happy home, and the for- 
lorn widow a career of blessed usefulness."* 

That is a wonderful illustration of what can be 
done even by the poorest, and I bring it out in this 
connection that we may all be stimulated by it to do 
our utmost in the service of our generation by the 
will of God. The deep poverty of that destitute 
widow abounded to the riches of her liberality, and 
like the woman of Zarephath in sharing her handful 
with others, she found the old word made good, 
" The handful of meal shall not waste, neither shall 
the cruise of oil fail." He who giveth thus to the 
orphaned and the homeless lendeth to the Lord, who 
makes both swift and sure repayment with added 
interest of blessing. 

But, in the second place, we have here forced 
upon us the contrast between the palace of a hea- 
then emperor and the cottage of a Christian peas- 
ant. What a hot-bed of intrigue, passion, selfish- 

* Life and Sermons of David King, LL.D,, pp. 66-68. 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. 1 49 

ness, and iniquity this Persian court was ! All the 
splendor of its architecture, and all the magnifi- 
cence of its furniture, cannot hide the lascivious- 
ness of which this palace was the scene, and yet 
this was the best the world could afford. Truly 
we may say, "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity and 
vexation of spirit." There was no true happiness 
in it all. But now put over against this chapter, 
such a home scene as that which the Scottish poet 
has depicted in his " Cotter's Saturday Night," and 
tell me if its simple, rustic, cheerful piety does not 
dazzle into dimness the " mocking shine " of Shu- 
shan's gilded vice. And what principally and espe- 
cially made the difference between them .'' What 
but that same "big ha' Bible," which lies open on 
the cotter's knee ? Yet it is this Christian home 
life, with all its happiness and all its holy educa- 
tional influences, that is in danger among us at this 
day. For the marriage union is the fountain of do- 
mestic purity, and few things are more sad in the 
condition of society among us than the easy frivo- 
lousness with which that sacred tie is broken by 
those who vowed to be true to one another " until 
death should part " them. But what is lightly made 
is lightly held, and if more thought and prayer w^ere 
given to the selection of a partner for life, there 
would be less temptation to divorce. "Ah, me !" 
says Tholuck, " if our youth would but more deeply 
ponder what it is to choose a partner to be of one 
spirit and one flesh with them for the whole of their 



150 , ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

pilgrimage on earth, their choice would not be made 
in the false glare of a theatre or a ball-room. ' Till 
death shall you part,' would ring perpetually in 
their souls. In the light of day they would choose, 
and by the light of God's Word they would try 
their partner, seek the advice of Christian friends, 
and not join hands until they were sure of the Di- 
vine Amen." * These are the marriages which God 
will bless, and on which happy homes are built, and 
it is on the households of the people that the na- 
tion rests. 



IV. 

THE FIRST QUAKER. 
Esther III. 

Nearly four years have passed since Esther was 
taken into the royal house, and Mordecai is still 
one of the confidential servants or chamberlains of 
Xerxes, and is daily to be seen with his colleagues 
sitting "in the King's gate." He has received no 
reward for his discovery and disclosure of the plot 
by which the life of the Emperor was imperilled ; 
and the whole matter seems to have been forgotten 
in the emergence of a new favorite, and his eleva- 

* Tholuck's Hours of Christian Devotion, p. 471. 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. 151 

tion to the highest office which a subject could 
hold. This man's name was Haman, and he is de- 
scribed as the son of Hammedatha the Agagite. 
That is literally all we know about him, except 
what comes out in this history, in which he plays a 
most conspicuous, and at the same time a most de- 
spicable, part. The word " Haman " is supposed by 
Rawlinson to be' the Hebrew for Umanish, the Per- 
sian equivalent for the Greek Eumenes, and the 
term Agagite seems to be connected with Agag; 
which would appear to have been a royal name 
among the Amalekites, like Pharaoh among the 
Egyptians and Caesar among the Romans. What 
he had done to secure his advancement at the Per- 
sian court is not mentioned ; but the fact that the 
King should have felt it necessary to issue an or- 
der that all his servants should reverently bow be- 
fore the new vizier may, perhaps, be regarded as 
an indication that he was not in himself such a 
man as they would be likely to honor of their own 
accord ; while Haman's own insistence on having 
such honor paid him, bespeaks the temper of one 
who had sprung from comparatively low degree. 
The other servants in the gate treated the matter 
with indifference, and obeyed the King's command. 
They reasoned, apparently, that it was no affair of 
theirs what sort of person Haman was, and that as 
they were the King's servants, they would do as he 
commanded. But Mordecai felt otherwise. It was 
with him an affair of conscience, and therefore, as 



152 ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

Haman came and went, he kept himself erect as a 
Quaker, and would make no obeisance to the great 
man. His colleagues reasoned with him on the 
subject, but it was to no purpose, and at length, to 
stop all further parley in the case, he said, " I am a 
Jew," and cannot do as the King has commanded. 
Upon this they reported the insubordination of 
Mordecai to Haman, not to the King, you will ob- 
serve, whose ordinance had been broken, but to 
Haman, who straightway went to his Majesty and 
complained, not of the conduct of Mordecai to him- 
self, but of the peculiar customs and laws of the 
Jews, whereby, as he alleged, they were a constant 
danger to the state. 

But on what ground did Mordecai refuse to bow 
to Haman and do him reverence ? The only an- 
swer which comes clearly out of the chapter to that 
question is, that the position which he took was one 
that was common to him with all his people, so 
that it was sufficiently accounted for to others 
when he said, " I am a Jew." It was a matter of 
religion with him. But that being admitted, the 
question still arises, what was there in such a com- 
mand as this of Xerxes to offend the conscience of 
a pious Jew? Some have answered that, as the 
Persian monarch was regarded as an incarnation 
of Ahura-Mazda, and therefore entitled to divine 
honors, the act of prostration before him was un- 
derstood to imply worship ; and so homage paid 
to Haman as the King's representative would be a 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. 153 

virtual giving of divine honor to a human creature. 
This is confirmed even by heathen writers — for 
Herodotus tells us that certain Greeks on being 
pressed to prostrate themselves before the King, 
when they were introduced into his presence at 
Susa, declared " that it was not their custom to 
worship a man, nor had they come for that pur- 
pose ;" and Curtius has said, " The Persians, indeed, 
not only from motives of piety but also from pru- 
dence, worship their kings among the gods.* Now, 
if that explanation be adopted, the act of Mordecai 
takes its place beside the refusal of the early Chris- 
tians to sacrifice to the Roman Emperor, and puts 
him on the honor roll among those whose rule of 
life in all such cases was, " We ought to obey God 
rather than men." But while it would fully justify 
Mordecai, this explanation is m itself not without 
difficulty. For did not Joseph's brethren make 
similar obeisance to him ? Would not Mordecai 
after his own elevation to Haman's place be re- 
quired to bow before the King .? and must we con- 
demn Nehemiah for rendering to Artaxerxes the 
homage which Mordecai here refused to Haman, 
though Xerxes himself had commanded that it 
should be rendered ? It is possible, of course, that 
Mordecai was right, and that all the rest were 
wrong ; but it is not absolutely incontrovertible that 
the reverence here required was of the nature of 

* See Keil on Esther, in loco. 



154 ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

religious worship. Others, therefore, have sought 
for the reason of Mordecai's disobedience to the 
royal mandate in the nationality of Haman. Tak- 
ing Agagite as equivalent to Amalekite, they re- 
mind us that the Amalekites were the first to at- 
tack the Israelites after their escape from Egypt, 
and that after his victory over them on that occa- 
sion Moses said, " The Lord hath sworn that the 
Lord will have war with Amalek from generation 
to generation.'"^ They recall to our remembrance, 
also, the fact that it was for sparing some of the 
Amalekites that Saul was first rejected by God 
from being king over Israel, and that the only time 
that Samuel wielded a sword was when he " hewed 
Agag in pieces before the Lord."t Now if Haman 
was indeed an Amalekite, it would be easy to find 
in that a reason for Mordecai's conduct, as well as 
for Haman's purpose of revenge; for these de- 
scending feuds between races in the East are both 
undying and envenomed, especially when they are 
rooted in religious differences. But then we have 
no other case in Scripture where a royal title like 
Agag becomes a family patronymic, so as to be 
the name of a tribe ; and it is hard to account for 
the appearance of one of the hated race of Amalek 
here, at this late date, in Susa. So there are diffi- 
culties connected with both solutions, and it is not 
easy to choose between them. Perhaps the first, 

* Exodus xvii., 14-16. f I. Samuel xv., 15-33. 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. I55 

all things considered, is the more satisfactory ; and 
without insisting that it is absolutely correct, we 
shall speak throughout as if it were the true hy- 
pothesis. 

It is a little remarkable, as v/e have already noted, 
that his fellow-servants should have told Haman of 
Mordecai's conduct rather than informed the King, 
for it was a royal ordinance that he disregarded ; 
but their action may be explained either by their 
knowledge that Mordecai was in all other respects 
distinguished for his loyalty to Xerxes, or by their 
desire to ingratiate themselves with the new favorite. 
Not less noteworthy is it that when Haman made 
his representation to the King, he said not a word 
about the personal slight which had so stung him 
into revenge , but pretended to be acting solely 
on public grounds, and with a view to the safety and 
welfare of the empire. The act of Mordecai was 
rooted in his nationality as a Jew, and therefore 
Haman " thought scorn " to take vengeance on him 
alone , inasmuch as the next Jew he met might 
repeat the indignity. So nothing would serve him 
but that the race should be exterminated, and to 
secure that end he made the following representa- 
tion to the Emperor. "There is a certain people 
scattered abroad and dispersed among the people 
in all the provinces of thy kingdom ; and their laws 
are diverse from all people ; neither keep they the 
King's laws : therefore, it is not for the King's profit 
to suffer them." Now in all this we have a most 



156 ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

ingenious insinuation of falsehood under color of 
that which was mainly true. It cannot be denied 
that the Jews were a peculiar people, with laws that 
were diverse from those of other nations ; but it 
was not the case that, as a general thing, they did 
not keep the King's laws. For the things in which 
their laws were divergent from those of others were 
religious, and of such a sort as did not interfere 
with their civil allegiance ; so that they were even 
distinguished above others for living quiet and 
peaceable lives ; they paid their tribute without 
giving any trouble ; they complied with all the de- 
mands that were made upon them, except when 
these interfered with the injunctions of their God, 
and it was an atrocious libel on their character to 
affirm that they were on that account disloyal to 
the King or dangerous to the State. They were 
very particular, indeed, to " render unto God the 
things that were God's;" but they were also just as 
punctilious in " rendering to Caesar the things that 
were Caesar's ;" and when the two came into col- 
lision, the difficulty arose not from their refusal to 
obey the King in all proper matters, but from the 
King's invasion of the domain of conscience, of 
which God alone is the Lord. One instance of the 
latter sort had galled Haman, and from that sin- 
gle case he drew the sweeping, unwarranted, and 
universal inference that they did not *' keep the 
King's laws." The same declaration had been 
made regarding the three Hebrew youths in the 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. 1 57 

time of Nebuchadnezzar, and regarding Daniel in 
the days of Darius, and the world has become fa- 
miliar with it in the Christian centuries. It was 
the pretext for the persecution of the early Chris- 
tians ; it was the excuse given by Alva for his 
enormities in the Low Countries ; by the kings of 
France in the dragonnades, and the massacre of St. 
Bartholemew , and by the Stuarts for their oppres- 
sion of the English Puritans and the Scottish Cove- 
nanters, and in all of these it was equally false. 
It was not the persecuted that were in these in- 
stances guilty of high treason, but the persecutors, 
and their disloyalty was to the royalty of conscience. 
They invaded a territory that is claimed as sacred 
by the God of heaven, and resistance to them there 
has done more for the cause of civil freedom than 
all other things in the world besides. 

But Haman, though he knew that he was lying 
when he made the unqualified statem^ent as to the 
Jews, that they did not keep the King's laws, knew 
also that he was safe — for the time, at least — in 
making such an affirmation, for there was nobody 
in the presence to contradict him ; and the King 
himself seems to have known nothing whatever 
about the Jews, and to have cared less than noth- 
ing what was done with them. But Haman was 
determined not to fail, and s^, when suggesting 
that they should be destroyed, he took the precau- 
tion of offering the King a large sum of money, 
amounting probably to between ten and twenty 



158 ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

millions of our dollars, that nothing shouid be lost 
to the royal treasury by their extermination. This 
was all that was required, and so, with an appear- 
ance of impatience, as if the whole matter — though 
it involved the lives of many thousands of his 
subjects — was a "bore" to him, he virtually said, 
taking his ring from his hand the while, " There — 
do what you like with the people and their money 
too, and don't trouble me any more about them." 

So far, Haman's plan seemed to succeed admi- 
rably. But now how was he to manage the details 
that had been thus unceremoniously left in his own 
hands ? Like most men of cruel and vindictive 
dispositions, he was very superstitious. It was 
therefore very important, in his estimation, that he 
should fix a "lucky" day for the execution of his 
purpose. And to get a lucky day he cast Pur, or 
Piirim* — that is, he cast lots. He tried first for 

* Concerning this, M. Dieulafoy, in the lecture already re- 
ferred to, makes the following interesting statements : " This 
sentence (Esther iii., 7) presents no difficulty if one keeps to 
the literal meaning. It concerns a means of augury called in 
the Persian tongue Fur, which was thrown before any one 
desirous of taking the advice of fate. The Ftir undoubtedly 
expressed its oracles by 'yes' or 'no.' Like the Egyptian 
gods, it must reply to very decided questions, asked in some 
kind of double manner. 'Shall the Jews be massacred on 
the first day of the month?' We know that, consulted day 
by day, month by month, the Pzir gave a negative answer ; 
then, when the thirteenth day and the twelfth month was 
called, it answered, 'yes;' that is,>kill. Among the objects 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. 1 59 

the day of the month, and it came out for the thir- 
teenth ; then he tried similarly for the month of 
the year, and it came out for the twelfth. So the 
massacre was fixed for the thirteenth day of the 
twelfth month. " Truly the lot is cast into the lap, 
but the whole disposing of it is with the Lord," for 
even the dullest reader of the history must see that 
if the lot had fallen in one of the earlier months, 
there would have been less time given to the Jews 
to prepare for the emergency, and little opportu- 
nity for Mordecai's taking measures for the coun- 
teracting of the nefarious design of him who is here 
called, so emphatically, " the Jews' enemy." Thus, 
as Henry says, "The lot broke the neck of the 
plot." 

Acting on the indication given by the lot as to 
the lucky day of the month, Haman wrote his proc- 
lamation on the thirteenth day of the first month. 
It was written in all the languages — more than 
twenty in number — of the empire, and sealed with 
the King's ring, so that all might know that the 

found in the deep excavation of the Memnonium {i.e., the 
palace at Susa) is a quadrangular prism, each side measuring 
a centimetre, and the length four and a half centimetres. On 
the rectangular faces are engraved different numbers — one, 
two, five, six. Throw the prism, and it must stand on an 
even or an uneven number. The Persians love games of 
chance as much as wine. May not the little Susian relic be 
one of their dice ? And may not their dice, under the name 
of Ptir, have been used to consult the fates and try fortunes?" 
— Bibliotheca Sacra for October, 1889, p. 629. 



l6o ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

name of Xerxes had not been unwarrantably em- 
ployed. It authorized all to whom it came "to 
destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish all Jews, 
both young and old, little children and women, in 
one day, the thirteenth of the twelfth month, Avhich 
is the month Adar, and to take the spoil of them 
for a prey." These, as it would seem, are the very- 
terms that were used ; and so we have appended 
to them, in the next verse, this certification of their 
accuracy, which in a modern history would have 
been given in a foot-note : " The copy of the writing 
for a commandment to be given in every province 
was published unto all people, that they should be 
ready against that day." 

But when it is said "the posts went out, being 
hastened by the King's commandment," v/e are not 
to suppose, of course, that there was in Persia at 
that time any such expeditious postal service as 
that which we now enjoy ; and yet, for that age, it 
was exceedingly good, but only the King could take 
advantage of it. Indeed, it was one of the means 
used by him for the government of the empire, and 
was very largely, according to Herodotus, the de- 
vice of this same Xerxes. Along the chief lines of 
travel he established, at intervals of about fourteen 
miles, post-houses, at each of which relays of horses 
and couriers were always in readiness. One of these 
messengers, receiving an official document, rode 
with it at his utmost speed to the next post-house, 
where it was taken onward by another courier with 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. l6l 

another horse, and in this way a proclamation like 
that here described would reach the farthest limits 
of the empire within six or eight weeks. Thus the 
letters were issued ; and Haman was delighted, and 
the King was glad to see his courtier pleased, so 
that they sat down together in the palace to drink ; 
but, with a suggestive contrast, the historian adds, 
"the city Shushan was perplexed." 

It is time now, however, to look for some practi- 
cal lessons from this history of pride and plotting 
and revenge. We have in the case of Mordecai an 
example of fidelity to principle which is worthy of 
all study and imitation. As I have read his con- 
duct, he was convinced that it was v/rong for him 
to do homage to Haman, and therefore he would 
not do it under any pretence whatsoever. It was a 
small matter, in itself considered, that he was asked 
to do, but in this case that small matter was of such 
a nature that it marked the distinction between po- 
liteness and idolatry, and therefore he refused to 
do it. The difference between right and wrong may 
be shown in a little matter, but it is not therefore a 
little difference ; and they who are determined to 
be thorough in their allegiance to God will make 
no distinction in their conduct between small things 
and great. Very noble, too, was Mordecai's firm- 
ness in resisting the entreaties of his fellow-serv- 
ants, for he shut up the whole controversy with the 
simple confession, " I am a Jew." He advised Es- 
ther not to make known her kindred when there 



1 62 ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

was no occasion for her so doing ; but now when 
the question comes to be, as he regards it, between 
committing sin and preserving his loyalty to God as 
one of the peculiar people, he has no hesitation in 
declaring his own. He will not needlessly publish 
his religion on the house-top, but neither will he be 
ashamed of it in the " King's gate." It might cost 
him much to make the confession, but he knew that 
sin would be still more costly, and so he did not 
shrink from saying, " I am a Jew." He had the 
courage of his convictions ; and though he despised 
Haman, he was determined never so to act as that 
he should despise himself. Now, herein he gave 
an example which Christians might follow with ad- 
vantage. Have the courage, young men, when you 
are asked to do what you know to be wrong, to re- 
ply simply, yet sublimely, thus : " I am a Christian ;" 
and when men see you are steadfastly-minded, they 
will leave off speaking to you. Add to your faith 
courage. By that I mean not mere physical brave- 
ry, put the far rarer quality of moral courage — the 
heroism, not of the warrior, but of the man who has 
learned to run the gauntlet of ridicule and scorn, 
and to follow the dictates of duty, " uncaring con- 
sequences." Nothing great or good in the world 
has ever been accomplished without that. Men 
may call you stiff- backed, Quaker, Puritan, Meth- 
odist, and the like, but even these very names may 
remind you that the mightiest power among men, 
next only to that of the Spirit of God, is the power 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. 1 63 

of conscience ; and that the grandest pioneers even 
of civil freedom have been those who insisted upon 
their right " to keep a conscience void of offence 
towards God and towards men." Hence, young 
men — for it is to you especially I here address my- 
self — if you would worthily serve not merely this 
generation, but also those which shall come after 
you, you must learn to meet temptation with a di- 
rect negative, and master the difficult art of saying 
" No." Never mind though you may seem to stand 
alone ; he who has God on his side is always really 
in a majority 5 and he who can say, the Father is 
with me, is never alone. Stand fast in your integ- 
rity, and let life go sooner than your principles. If 
the world would have you do reverence to that 
which you believe to be detestable, let the world 
go ; if the world would have you applaud when it 
is crucifying Christ afresh, be not ashamed of your 
nonconformity, but declare modestly, firmly, yet 
clearly and unmistakably, that you are a Christian, 
and that your homage goes to the Crucified, and 
not to them who are responsible for the crucifixion. 
Above all — and here I quote the words of the great- 
est wit of his age — " Learn to inure your principles 
against ridicule. You can no more exercise your 
reason if you live in the constant dread of laughter 
than you can enjoy your life if you are in the con- 
stant terror of death. If you think it right to differ 
from the times, and to make a point of morals, do it, 
however rustic, however antiquated, however pe- 



164 ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

dantic it may appear ; do it, not from insolence, but 
seriously and grandly ; as a man who wore a soul 
of his own in his bosom, and did not wait till it 
was breathed into him by the breath of fashion."^ 
Do it, let me add, like one who 'owes his whole self 
to Christ, and who is not ashamed to say, when the 
occasion calls for it, " I am a Christian." As we 
shall presently see, in our prosecution of this his- 
tory, your adherence to this course may bring you 
into trouble ; but that sort of trouble comes to an 
end, and the Lord will lead you out of it, while the 
trouble that results from the opposite course will 
be unending, for Jesus himself says — and the words 
are all the more terrible as coming from His lips — 
"Whosoever shall be ashamed of me, and of my 
words, of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, 
when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the 
holy angels." f 

But in the conduct of Haman we have a beacon 
of warning, which may be just as profitable to us as 
the example of Mordecai. The root of the evil in 
him was pride. Like most men who have risen 
from obscurity into an exalted position, not by their 
own ability but by the gift of another, he valued 
his elevation not for the good he could do to oth- 
ers through it, but for the increased consideration 
which it brought to himself. It was more to him 
to see these chamberlains bowing in the King's 

* Sydney Smith. f Mark viii. 38. 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. I 65 

gate than it was to have it in his power to help on 
good and great movements for the welfare of his 
fellow-men. He was one of those who valued office 
for what it brought to him rather than for the serv- 
ice which he might render through it alike to the 
King and to his subjects ; and therefore when he 
was told of Mordecai's Quakerism he was exceed- 
ing wroth. A man of principle would have respect- 
ed the conscientiousness of the act, even though 
he might have laughed at what he regarded the 
smallness of the scruple. A man of ordinary com- 
mon-sense would have treated the whole affair with 
indifference ; but Haman valued his office just be- 
cause it carried with it the right to such homage, 
and therefore what would have been a mole-hill, or 
hardly so much, to others, was a mountain to him. 
The proud man thus increases his own misery; 
and little slights, which other people would not so 
much as notice, are felt by him with great keen- 
ness. He whose arm has been recently vaccinated 
is very sensitive where the pustule is, so that a 
push which you would think nothing of is agony 
to him. Now, in precisely the same way the proud 
man is "touchy," as we say; the slightest infringe- 
ment on his dignity wounds him to the quick, and 
when other people are laughing he is vowing re- 
venge; for, as this story illustrates, the passions 
are all near of kin, and one prepares the way for 
another. 

Brooding over the refusal of Mordecai to do him 



1 66 ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

reverence, it became so magnified in his estimation 
that he determined to punish it ; there was revenge. 
That he might gratify that revenge it became neces- 
sary to bring the pecuHarities of the Jewish nation 
before the King, and he requested their destruction 
on the ground that they were not profitable to the 
monarch, whereas the sole reason why he suggested 
their extirpation was that Mordecai had slighted 
him j there was falsehood. Then, in planning their 
massacre, there was murder. Here, therefore, were 
four sins all in a line, each rising above the other in 
enormity — pride, revenge, falsehood, murder. Peo- 
ple think, sometimes, that pride is no great sin ; some 
almost speak of it as if it were half a virtue ; but, as 
this and other histories make plain, it is the germ of 
other evils that are worse than itself, and therefore 
we ought to be on our guard against allowing our- 
selves to become its victim. 

And how shall we best counteract it ? I reply, by 
cultivating a sense of responsibility. That which we 
have, whether it be ability, or wealth, or exalted po- 
sition, we have received as a trust, and we are to use . 
it, as stewards for God, in the service of our fellow- 
men. Let us keep pressing the questions. Who hath 
made me to differ from others ? What have I that I 
have not received .'' For what purpose have I been 
intrusted with these things ? And the more we pon- 
der these, the less we shall be inclined to plume our- 
selves on our possessions, and the more we shall be 
stirred up to the service of our generation by the will 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. 1 67 

of God. The cultivation of a sense of responsibility 
to God for our possessions, and the manifestation 
of stewardship to Him in the use of our means as 
His servants for the welfare of our fellow-men, are 
the great needs of our times. So far as I can see, 
they are the only things that will preserve us from 
the anarchy and revolution that Communism and 
Nihilism threaten to bring always in their train. 
As it is, the great ones of our time are a little too 
much like Xerxes and Haman here, who sat down 
to eat and to drink in the palace, heedless of the 
lives that they had just devoted to destruction, and 
altogether unconscious of the perplexity that was 
grumbling like the first sounds of a volcanic erup- 
tion in the city and among the people. Unless all 
signs deceive me, there is coming upon us a con- 
flict between property and Communism which will 
have to be settled somehow, and which will never 
be settled permanently until it is settled right. It 
is, therefore, suicidal folly for those who are wealthy 
to sit in luxurious self-indulgence in their palaces 
while so many are perplexed. If they would act 
wisely, they would take measures to prevent that 
conflict ; and the scriptural means for securing that 
are the cultivation of this sense of responsibility 
for ownership, and the acting out of that in stew- 
ardship for God, so that they should say, " We are 
debtors" to our fellow -men, and will hold our 
means in trust under God for them. The Com- 
munist says, " Property is theft ;" but the Christian 



1 68 ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

replies, " My property is God's." The Communist 
says, " What is yours is mine, and I will take it by 
force;" but the Christian replies, "Nay, what is 
mine is God's, and I will use it as His for the wel- 
fare of my fellow-men and as accountable to Him." 
Thus, and thus alone, the capitalist will checkmate 
the Communist ; and I would that I had the voice 
of a trumpet to cry to all of them over all the land, 
" Be stewards for God, and use your wealth for the 
benefit of your generation by the will of God. But 
if you are thoroughly indifferent, beware lest the 
perplexity of Shushan rise into the roar of an an- 
archy which will sweep everything before it in its 
reign of terror." Pride will bring destruction ; but 
the sense of such a responsibility as I have speci- 
fied, stimulating to action, is the true conservative 
principle, and the only thing that will meet the case. 
God help us all to lay these things to heart ! 



V. 

THE CRISIS. 
^ Esther IV. 1-17. 

Evil tidings travel by express, and wherever they 
go they produce sorrow of heart. The publication 
of the decree issued by Haman in the name of 
Xerxes was followed by an outburst of grief, which, 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. 1 69 

beginning at Shushan, spread out and out in the 
wake of the couriers, until it was heard in the re- 
motest province of the empire. Naturally, how- 
ever, this anguish was more keenly felt by Mordecai 
than by any other individual among the Jews. For 
he knew * the history of the plot. He could not 
hide it from himself that he had been the occa- 
sion of provoking Haman's diabolical revenge ; and 
though he did not and could not upbraid himself 
for having done wrong in refusing to give homage 
to the new vizier, yet he could not but be peculiarly 
affected by this result of his adherence to principle. 
At first it would appear that he was so stunned, and 
almost stupefied, by the news, that he knew not what 
to do. He was cast into the uttermost distress. 
He was like a vessel struck by a cyclone. He 
would get to the use of efforts to meet the crisis by- 
and-by ; but, for the moment, when the hurricane 
first burst upon him, he could do nothing but give 
way to the violence of the storm. So he rent his 
clothes and put on sackcloth and ashes ; and, as no 
one might appear in such a garb of misery in the 
neighborhood of the palace lest, forsooth, he should 
mar the happiness of the monarch, he went out into 
the midst of the city, and cried with a loud and bit- 
ter cry. 

This conduct of his attracted the attention of the 
eunuchs, who were the only means of communica- 

* See verse 7 of this chapter. 



170 ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

tion between the house in which Esther dwelt and 
the outer world. They probably did not know as 
yet the relationship between Esther and Mordecai, 
but they had long been familiar with their interest 
in each other, and therefore it was quite natural 
that they should tell her of his grief. When she 
heard their report she sent raiment for him to put 
on, thinking, perhaps, that the matter was so unim- 
portant that she might remove his sadness by get- 
ting him to put away its livery. But when her mes- 
sengers returned and told her that he would not 
receive her gift, she was led to conclude that the 
case was more serious than she had at first sup- 
posed ; and, therefore, she called Hatach, her most 
trusted servant, the head of her establishment, whom 
Xerxes had specially appointed as her attendant, 
and sent him to get from Mordecai a full explana- 
tion of his distress. This opened the way, as Mor- 
decai seems to have thought, to an escape from the 
danger by which the Jews were threatened. There- 
fore he told the whole story to Hatach, gave him a 
copy of the decree which Haman had issued in the 
King's name, and sent an urgent message to Esther, 
charging her " that she should go in unto the King, 
to make supplication to him and to make request 
before him for her people." From this it follows 
either that Hatach was already somewhat acquainted 
with Esther's nationality, or that he was now in- 
formed of it for the first time ; but, in any case, he 
faithfully carried Mordecai's message to Esther, and 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. 171 

was sent back by her to inform her kinsman of the 
gravity of the position in which she stood. Slie re- 
minded him of the law that none were permitted to 
enter unannounced into the royal presence on pain 
of death, unless the King should hold out the golden 
sceptre to them that they might touch it ; and she 
added that it was very problematical whether he 
would show such clemency to her, inasmuch as, for 
some reason, she seemed to have fallen into disfavor, 
and had not been called to come into the King for 
thirty days. 

This answer was exceedingly disappointing to 
Mordecai. He imagined that Esther shrank from 
undertaking the duty which he had urged her to 
perform, and that she was timidly preferring her 
own safety to the deliverance of her people. So he 
sent Hatach back with another message, in which he 
gave her to understand that while her life was only 
risked by her going into the King, it would certain- 
ly be forfeited if the decree should be carried out ; 
for, now that her Jewish birth was known, she could 
not hope to escape any more than others ; and then, 
reminding her that her people were under special 
protection as the chosen of God, he pointedly im- 
plied that she might discover in this opportunity 
the reason why she had been so unexpectedly ex- 
alted to the place which she had been called to fill. 
*' Think not with thyself," said he, " that thou shalt 
escape in the King's house more than all the Jews. 
For if thou altogether boldest thy peace at this 



172 ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance 
arise to the Jews from another place ; but thou and 
thy father's house shall be destroyed : and who 
knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for 
such a time as this ?" 

This noble, patriotic, faitliful, and believing ap- 
peal was not in vain. It brought Esther to im- 
mediate resolution ; and, requesting that Mordecai 
and all the Jews in Shushan should spend tlie inter- 
vening time in fasting, while she and her maidens 
did the same, she promised to go into the presence 
of tlie King on the third day, no matter what the 
consequence should be to herself. "If I perish," 
she said, not in bitterness, but in the resignation of 
self-sacrifice — " if I perish, I perish." 

It is remarkable that nothing is said here con- 
cerning prayer, and some have spoken of that to 
the discredit of both Mordecai and Esther ; but the 
fasting was in itself a prayer ; for it was not a form 
put on from without, but the natural expression of 
the inner emotion, and, as an application to God, it 
is to be explained much as we do the touching of 
the Saviour by the woman, who in that way sought 
her cure. It was not so direct an appeal to God as 
prayer, but yet it was a real appeal to Him, and that 
was the main thing. Words are signs^ just as fast- 
ing is a sign. That which is essential in either is 
genuineness. God does not look to the words in 
themselves, any more than he does to the fasting in 
itself. He has regard only to that which the soul 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. 1 73 

expresses, either by the one or through the other. 
The touch of the soul of the woman went to the 
Master's heart through her touching of His garment 
with her fingers ; and the yearning of the soul of 
Esther, through her fasting, made its appeal to 
Jehovah, even though she did not breathe His 
name. Nor did it plead in vain, for, as we shall 
see ere long, God was entreated for the people, and 
made a way of escape for them. 

But now, turning from the history, which is in it- 
self so plain as to need little or no exposition, let 
us see what lessons v/e may learn from it for our 
spiritual profit. 

First of all, let us remember that we cannot keep 
trouble from our hearts by banishing the signs of 
mourning from our dwellings. It was the fiction of 
the Persians that their monarch was a god. Hence 
his decrees Vv^ere irreversible, and no emblem of 
sorrow was allowed to approach his palace. But 
all that was nothing better than a solemn farce, for 
the King was a man, subject to the common lot of 
mortals. No porter could turn back sickness from 
his door, or prevent the entrance of care or disap- 
pointment or unhappiness into the chamber of his 
heart ; and at the appointed time, in spite of all the 
precautions of the chamberlains who sat in his gate, 
the rider on the pale horse would pass in and say to 
him, "This night thy soul shall be required of thee." 
But the same things are true of us. It is the height 
of folly, therefore, for us to try to surround ourselves 



174 ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

with the appearance of security, and make believe 
that no change can come upon us. That is to do 
like the ostrich, which buries its head in the sand, 
and thinks itself safe from its pursuers because it 
can no longer see them. Trouble, sorrow, trial, 
death are inevitable, and the wise course is to pre- 
pare to meet them. We cannot shut our homes 
against these things ; but we can open them to 
Christ, and when He enters He says, " My grace is 
sufficient for thee ; My strength is made perfect in 
weakness." If we have the Holy Spirit in our 
hearts. He will bear us up under every affliction 
and carry us through every emergency ; and such 
support through trial and death is better than ex- 
emption from either. To get God into the home is 
wiser by far than to seek to keep sorrow out of it ; 
for the sorrow will come in any event, but sorrow 
where God is never really harms a man, for He 
makes it the precursor of the highest joy. 

Let us think, again, of the contrast between the 
earthly King, as here represented, and the true 
King of Kings. How carefully the Persian Em- 
peror hedged himself in, not only from the subjects 
over whom he ruled, but even from the members of 
his household ! No one dared to venture unan- 
nounced into his presence, save at the risk of life. 
But how free our access is, through Jesus Christ, to 
the throne of grace and Him that sitteth thereon ! 
" In Him we have boldness and access with confi- 
dence by the faith of Him." No matter who we are 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. 1 75 

or where we are, we can get into the presence of 
God when we choose. In the closet, in the crowded 
street, in the railroad car, on the deck of the ship, 
or in the solitude of the mountain-side — in all time 
of our tribulation, of whatever sort it be, we can get 
to the ear of the Hearer of Prayer, in the full assur- 
ance that He will attend to our cry and give us that 
which He sees that we require. No recent appli- 
cation of modern science to the business necessi- 
ties of our time is to me more remarkable than the 
telephone, by means of which we can converse with 
a friend who is to us invisible ; and every time I hear 
it employed it seems as wonderful to me as it did be- 
fore. But the earthly telephone is stationary ; I must 
go where it is fixed before I can employ it. Here, 
however, in prayer, I carry about within my heart 
a telephone through which at any moment and from 
any place I can cry right into the ear of God and 
get an answer from Him. Ah ! if we but realized 
how true that is we should not need to be exhorted 
after this fashion, "Let us, therefore, come boldly 
unto the throne of grace." But, as it is, there are 
too many of us who act as if the way to the mercy 
seat were as strictly closed as was that into the 
presence chamber of the Persian King. Let us get 
rid of all such unbelief, and resolve to make full 
proof of the privilege of prayer ; for the Church, I 
verily believe, has not yet discovered more than the 
merest fraction of that which this free access to 
God's throne implies. 



176 ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

But, in the third place, let us learn from the appeal 
of Mordecai to Esther that opportunity is the test 
of character. "Who knoweth," he said, "whether 
thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as 
this !" Here, to the pious kinsman of the Queen, 
was the explanation of her exaltation. Now it was 
to be seen whether or not she would be true to the 
principles which he had instilled into her, and she 
was to pass into the order of heroines or to sink 
into the oblivion of failure. This v/as her " narrow 
place, where was no way to turn either to the right- 
hand or to the left." It was the tidal time of her 
life, the great opportunity of her existence, and the 
question was whether she would rise to the occasion 
and make it subservient to her greatness, or whether 
it would sweep her away with it as weak, irresolute, 
and unequal to the emergency. Happily, she stood 
the test, and by her courageous self-devotion proved 
that she was worthy of the affection with which her 
foster-father regarded her. Character is revealed 
only by being tested, and that test often comes 
in the shape of sudden elevation. The common 
idea, I know, is that character is tested only by 
affliction ; but I am not sure if prosperity be not a 
more searching acid than adversity. Here, for ex- 
ample, is a man living in a comparatively private 
position. His conduct, so far, is exemplary. His 
little failures are hardly worth mentioning in con- 
trast with what is regarded as his general excellence. 
He seems marked out for promotion. And promo- 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. 177 

tion comes, so that he is put into a place of public 
prominence and responsibility. But in that place 
he turns out an utter failure. Everybody is disap- 
pointed. Yet the explanation is that the new op- 
portunity was a temptation, the strain of which 
sprung a leak in him, and thereby revealed a hidden 
weakness, the existence of which had not before 
been suspected. Hazael might have passed for a 
kind-hearted man if he had never had the chance, 
as men say, of showing his cruelty as a king ; and 
in this connection who can forget the epigram of 
the great Roman historian concerning one of the 
vilest rulers that ever sat on the throne of the 
Caesars. When speaking of the good reputation of 
his youth, he says, "An admirable emperor, if only 
he had never reigned .'*" But there are others, like 
Esther here, whose true greatness has only been 
revealed by the opportunity which some critical 
emergency has given them. Such was Joseph in 
Egypt ; such, also, was Daniel in Babylon, and such 
may you prove to be, if God in His providence 
should put you into similar narrow places. On 
such occasions, as well as in the case of the solemn 
event in connection with which the poet uses the 
expression, we may say with him, " the readiness is 
all." But that readiness is not to be obtained 
merely by wishing for it at the time ; for character 
is a growth, and does not come to a man or a 
woman, ready - made, in the moment of urgency. 

The sublime opportunities of life, indeed, are the 

8* 



178 ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

things by which character is tested, and these come 
only now and then to any of us, perhaps never more 
than once to some of us ; but what that test shall 
bring to light is determined by the commonplaces 
of life beneath and behind that ordeal, just as here 
the character of Esther was formed by the daily 
training of Mordecai, and her improvement of it in 
the quiet times, when the thought of her coming to 
the kingdom had never entered into the mind of 
either of them. 

Now, this is a truth which ought never to be 
lost sight of by any one among us. What we 
shall do in a crisis depends upon what we have 
been doing all along in the ordinary routine of our 
lives, when no such emergency was on us. We 
cannot cut ourselves off from our past. There is a 
continuity in our lives, such that the habits which 
we have formed in the days that are gone do largely 
condition for us our resources in the present. Every 
day we live we are either adding to that constant 
element in us which constitutes our truest selves, 
and so increasing that reserve force on which in 
times of emergency we can draw with advantage, 
or we are expending with imprudent prodigality our 
spiritual capital, and living morally beyond our 
means, so that when a crisis comes we cannot stand 
it, and must inevitably go down. The careful man 
who husbands his earnings and stores them in 
some safe bank is able, when a time of adversity 
comes upon him, to tide over the difficulty by break- 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. 1 79 

ing in upon the surplus which he has accumulated. 
We all see and admit that in the case of deposits 
that are made outside of ourselves, and which are 
not ics so much as they are ours. But we too fre- 
quently fail to take note of it in respect to the char- 
acter deposits or drafts which we are constantly 
making on or from ourselves — meaning, thereby, our 
souls. When I was a student in the University of 
Glasgow I had a friend who was preparing himself 
for the medical profession, and who, on account of 
his proficiency, was made clerk to the Royal Infirm- 
ary of the city. He told me that as patients were 
brought in to that institution a careful note was 
taken of their former habits, and that in all cases of 
typhus fever or severe surgical operations he could 
almost infallibly predict the issue from the facts 
which were then submitted to him. If the patient 
had been temperate and steady in his former life, 
and had been careful not to injure himself by ex- 
cesses of any sort, it was, humanly speaking, all 
but certain that he would recover ; but if he had 
been habitually intemperate or vicious, it was equal- 
ly certain that he would die. He had overdrawn 
the capital of his constitution, and so when the 
emergency came there was nothing to sustain him 
through it, and he went down. Now, somehow 
similar it is with men spiritually. Our common 
daily life, whether we will confess it to ourselves or 
not, is either adding to our soul's capital of strength 
or taking from it. There is going on constantly 



l8o ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

within us a process either of invigoration and im- 
provement or of deterioration and enfeeblement ; 
and though we may not think of it at the time, we 
are thereby either fitting ourselves for taking the 
tide of opportunity at the moment when it is at the 
flood, or for letting the occasion go past unimproved, 
so that we shall be left stranded on the rock of ruin. 
If, as each morning dawns, we meet every duty as 
it calls us, or face every temptation as it attacks us, 
as a duty to be performed, or a temptation to be re- 
sisted out of regard to the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall 
thereby add to our store of strength for the con- 
fronting of what may yet be before us ; but if we go 
through our lives seeking only our own ease or the 
gratification of our appetites, or the indulgence of 
some evil ambition, we are, in all that, only weaken- 
ing ourselves, and making ourselves so much the 
less to be relied upon when we come into our king- 
dom, and have to face a time like that which Esther 
was here required to meet. Travellers tell us of a 
tree in tropical countries, the inner parts of which 
are sometimes eaten out by ants, while the bark and 
leaves remain apparently as fresh as ever, and it is 
not till the tornado comes and sweeps it down that 
its weakness is discovered. But the storm did not 
make the tree weak : it only revealed how weak it 
really was ; and its feebleness was the result of the 
gnawings of innumerable insects through a long 
course of years. In like manner, if we let our char- 
acters be honey-combed by neglect of common duty, 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. l8l 

or by daily indulgence in secret sin, or by habitual 
yielding to some temptation, we cannot expect any- 
thing else than failure when the testing hour shall 
come. 

What an importance thus attaches to what I may 
call the commonplace of life ! We are apt, when 
we read such a history as that before us, to ex- 
claim, " How tremendously important these grand 
outstanding opportunities of doing some great serv- 
ice are !" And no doubt they are all that we can 
say they are. But then we forget that the bearing 
in these of the individuals to whom they have been 
given will depend on the characters which they 
have been forming and strengthening in the ordi- 
nary routine life of everyday before they came into 
their kingdom. It is out of the commonplace, well 
and faithfully done, that the heroic is born; and 
the splendid devotion of Esther to the welfare of 
her people would never have been heard of had she 
not meekly learned and diligently practised the les- 
sons of her girlhood which Mordecai taught her in 
his pious home. The prize-taker at the end of the 
year is the daily plodder all through it. The gain- 
ing of his diploma by a student depends, no doubt, 
on the manner in which he passes his final exami- 
nation. That is for him the equivalent of this occa- 
sion in the life of Esther ; but, then, the proficiency 
which at that time he manifests does itself depend 
on the steady, constant perseverance which he has 
maintained in his class work from hour to hour 



I 82 ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

throughout his course. If he has been habitually 
trifling during all his years of college life, he will 
be rejected ; but if he has been doing his work 
faithfully from day to day, from week to week, from 
month to month, and from year to year, his name 
will be found at length upon the honor roll. So, 
in the work of our common life, we are each day 
making or marring ourselves for the critical oppor- 
tunities of our career. We are either prodigally 
draining away our soul's capital by sin, so that 
when we come to need it most we shall have none, 
and shall be like Samson shorn of his strength ; 
or v/e are accumulating resources through faith in 
Jesus Christ and obedience unto him, on which we 
can draw securely in our time of emergency. Do 
not, therefore, lose the commonplace in waiting for 
the great opportunity ; but improve the common- 
place by doing your best in it for Christ, and so you 
will be ready to take advantage of the opportunity 
when it does appear. I repeat it, and may God 
write it deeply upon all our hearts, it is out of the 
commonplace, well and faithfully done, that the 
heroic is born in the moment of opportunity. It is 
to the doing of that commonplace that God calls us 
now ; and by our doing that we shall prepare our- 
selves for the manifestation of Esther's devotion, 
when, like her, we come to our kingdom and our 
crisis. 



VI. 

THE CRISIS MET. 
Esther V. 1-14. 

The third day has come. But Esther does not 
shrink from the work which she has undertaken. 
It is with a palpitating heart, indeed, that she be- 
gins to array herself for her appearance before 
Xerxes. But her head is as clear as ever, and her 
woman's wit does not desert her. Not hers the 
fanaticism of those foolish people who imagine that 
because they have appealed to God, they need use 
no means themselves to bring about that which they 
desire. Rather does she show the sincerity of her 
religious fasting on the two former days by the 
elaborate attention which she pays to her toilet on 
the third. It is little, indeed, that she cares for 
dress or ornamentation in themselves at present, 
for the fate of her people is trembling in the bal- 
ance, and weighed against that they are felt to be 
less than nothing and vanity. Yet, just because of 
her devotion to her kinsfolk, she is more than usu- 
ally careful about her apparel at this time. If she 
has one robe which Xerxes had praised more than 



184 ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

all others, she will wear it now ; if there be a brace- 
let or a jewel in her case which has specially en- 
dearing associations connecting it with Xerxes, she 
will put it on her now. Nothing must be left un- 
done that can be done to please his eye and move 
his heart. Then as the hour for her great enter- 
prise strikes, she summons all her fortitude to sus- 
tain her through it. Calmness comes into her spirit 
with the need. The look of care passes from her 
countenance, and, putting on her " royalty " — ^for so 
the word is — majestic in mien, radiant in beauty, 
and smiling in loveliness, she makes her way to the 
end of the pillared avenue which led up to the 
throne of the Emperor, and standing there, where 
he could see her at a glance, she waits the result of 
her application for an audience. Placid in external 
appearance, she cannot but be anxious within. Was 
she to be invited forward, or would she be con- 
signed to the tender mercies of the executioner ? 
She can hear her heart beat as she stands, and the 
moment seems an hour ; but, oh, joy of joys ! he 
has looked up and smiled upon her, and lo! the 
gilded sceptre is lifted from his side, and held out 
by him for her touch, as he exclaims, " What wilt 
thou. Queen Esther ? and what is thy request ? it 
shall be given thee, to the half of the kingdom." 

These were formal words, not intended to be 
literally taken, but spoken after the hyperbolical 
fashion of an Eastern court. They are similar to 
those uttered by Herod to the daughter of Herodias, 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. 1 85 

and though in that case, as in this, the issue was 
serious enough, yet if the petitioner had gone be- 
yond a certain hmit and asked for more than was 
considered proper, she would have suffered severely 
for her rashness. Esther understood all that. She 
knew also how undue haste doth often most seri- 
ously hinder that which it desires to further, and, 
therefore, she took time to tell her errand. Where 
another might have given way to impulse, and made 
a passionate appeal for that which was so near her 
heart, she, being now relieved from all anxiety as to 
her reception, calmly took her leisure, for " he that 
believeth shall not make haste." With sagacious 
forethought, in the anticipation of her propitious 
reception by the King, she had caused an elaborate 
banquet to be prepared. She knew how fond he 
was of banquets, and now she simply requests that 
he and Haman will honor her by coming that day 
to her table. I say she simply requests, and yet 
such an invitation was very unusual. For the cus- 
tom was that the king and queen should dine sepa- 
rately in the apartments set apart for each, and the 
asking of another male guest who was not a rela- 
tion, was an almost unheard-of thing, which Haman 
would regard as a peculiar honor, and which the 
King would view as something done for his particu- 
lar pleasure. It is possible that Esther may have 
formerly shown some dislike for Haman ; perhaps 
it was because of that she had fallen somewhat into 
disfavor with the Emperor, so that now this invita- 



1 86 ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

tion of his favorite would seem to him to be a 
virtual acknowledgment that she had been v/rong, 
and that she had come at length to agree with him 
in his estimate of the vizier. We cannot tell. We 
know not how it appeared to Xerxes ; nor do we 
know what Esther's real motive for asking Haman 
was. Probably she felt that when the crisis came 
it was important that the Agagite should be in the 
presence, and if her first intention was to bring 
things to a point that day, this will sufficiently ac- 
count for her inviting him. 

But if we suppose that she planned from the 
very first to have two banquets, one on each of two 
successive days, as she actually had, then this first 
invitation may have been designed to lull the sus- 
picions of "the Jews' enemy," and keep him from 
taking measures to secure his escape. As I read 
the story, however, the former of these suppositions 
is the more natural. Esther had no other thought, 
when she gave the invitation, than that she would 
carry the matter through that day; and for the 
carrying of it through it was essential that Haman 
should be there. So Xerxes sent for him, bidding 
the messenger hasten him at once to the palace, 
and the two sat down to Esther's feast. Every- 
thing went well, and the King was even more com- 
plaisant than he was at first, so that he did not 
wait for Esther to enter upon her trouble, but, after 
he had feasted, he opened the affair himself, saying 
again to Esther, " What is thy petition ? and it shall 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. I 87 

be granted thee : and what is thy request ? even to 
the half of the kingdom it shall be performed." It 
was all very gracious, and Esther, thus encouraged, 
began her reply : " My petition and my request is " 
— but there she faltered. Something occurred to 
make her change her purpose even at the moment 
at which she was about to carry it through. Either 
she felt that she was going to break down, and so 
could not trust herself to proceed, lest she should 
burst into a flood of tears, which she knew would 
be not a help but a hinderance to her cause, for that 
which she had undertaken to do required the ut- 
most self-possession. Or she saw something in 
the face of the King which made her pause. Or 
she shrunk at the last instant from the dread ordeal, 
and felt that after all that she had already gone 
through that day, she required some rest before she 
attempted more. But however we may explain it, 
the fact remains that, after having just begun her 
answer, she faltered and changed her mind, so that 
instead of exposing the plot of Haman, she con- 
tented herself with inviting the King and him to 
another banquet, which she would prepare for them 
the next day, and with promising that then she 
would make her business known unto the King. 
Now, whatever the motive or occasion for this 
change of front at the last moment in the heart of 
Esther was, the reader of this history as a whole 
can see that her delay was of God, and that it gave 
time for the refreshing of the King's memory with 



1 88 ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

his obligation to Mordecai for the exposure of the 
plot by which his life had been endangered, and 
thereby led up to special honor for the honest 
Jew, and peculiar mortification for the unscrupulous 
Agagite. It might have been a mere passing whim 
of Esther to put off the moment of excitement ; but 
even of such a small matter as that God took cog^ 
nizance, and it was one of the all things that 
wrought together for the deliverance of His people 
from destruction. 

And now the banquet is over, and Haman leaves 
the palace v/ith more haughtiness than ever. 
'' What a mighty man am I ! and who so much to 
be envied in all this empire of a hundred and 
twenty provinces ? I have had the confidence of 
the King for long, and now at length Queen Esther 
has taken me into favor. How rapidly, too, I have 
advanced in her regard. I have banqueted with 
her to-day, and I am to be her guest to-morrow. 
Oh, fortunate Haman, thou art on the high-road 
to glory, and there is nothing too lofty for thine 
ambition !" So, perhaps, he soliloquized as he 
moved along, but when he reached the King's gate, 
and the chamberlains rose to make their reverent 
homage before him, he saw the hated Mordecai 
sitting unmoved in his place, and that sight liter- 
ally maddened him. What would he not give to 
make away with him where he sits ? To think that 
a contemptible cur like him should thus defy him 
to his face ! It was infamous, and no punishment 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. 189 

could be too great for such dishonor! But why 
should he make a disturbance now and stain the 
porch with blood? The thirteenth of Adar was 
coming, and then — and then — the dog should die 
and all his race along with him. 

Comforted (!) with such thoughts, he kept his 
hands off the Jew for the present. But it required 
an effort, for " he refrained himself." So he took 
his way to his home, but not with the same compla- 
cent self-conceit as he had left the palace, for Morde- 
cai's stiffness had poisoned his joy, and like Ahab, 
when Naboth refused to let him have his vineyard, 
he went to his house " heavy and sore displeased." 
He called for his wife and his friends, and told 
them of all his greatness, his riches, the multitude 
of his children, the honors which the King had 
heaped upon him, and, above all, the particular 
regard which Esther had shown to him in her in- 
vitations for that day and the next — but, he added, 
with a scowl which seemed as if the thing which he 
bemoaned had made all the others of no account, 
" All this availeth me nothing, so long as I see Mor- 
decai the Jew sitting at the King's gate." Poor 
man ! how little worth are all thy riches when a 
small thing like that outweighs them all ? How 
empty are thy honors, when this slight dishonor 
drives them out of mind ! How paltry thou art in 
thyself, when the conduct of another towards thee 
fills thee with such unhappiness ! Away with thee ! 
thou pompous parasite ! thou fawning sycophant ! 



190 ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

thou proud idolater of self! If there had been 
anything worth reverence in thee, thou wouldst 
not so have writhed under Mordecai's contempt ! 

But his wife was little better than the echo of 
himself. She could read him well, and knowing 
what would please him best, she said, " What need 
you thus distress yourself for a Jew ? Go, erect a 
cross there in your court, and ask the King that 
Mordecai may be impaled thereon to-morrow. 
After all these tokens of his favor he will not refuse 
you this one more. Then, when you have crucified 
your enemy, 'go thou in merrily with the King 
unto the banquet.' " What .? Merrily, Zeresh, after 
such a murder as that ? Merrily ? Ah, if thou 
didst but know who shall hang upon that gallows 
there would be no such word upon thy lips ! But 
the saying pleased her husband, and the cross was 
raised, fifty cubits high. As he looked at it, he 
might say within himself (perhaps with a grim 
smile), " He shall be exalted enough w^hen he is 
fixed on that." But not so fast, Haman, not so 
fast ! There is another to reckon with. Man pro- 
poses — it is God that disposes, and the cunningest 
schemes of earthly plotters are often put to confu- 
sion. 

But let us turn now and see what lessons we may 
glean for ourselves from this interesting history. 
And in the first place we have here an illustra- 
tion of the fact that when the crisis comes, God 
gives His people grace to meet it. Undeniably, 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. I91 

Esther was greatly upset when she received Morde- 
cai's first message ; and even when she sent back 
her servant to her foster-father with the report of 
her heroic resolution, there was that in her last 
words ("if I perish, I perish") which betokened 
that fear and trembling were in her heart. During 
her days of fasting, too, we may suppose that she 
looked forward with much trepidation to the mo- 
ment of her entering in before the King. But when 
the time came, God gave her strength to do her 
work, and she went forward to it calmly, to find 
that the way was clear. The Lord strengthened 
her to gather herself up for the crisis, and to hold 
herself, as we may say, well in hand all through. 
And that very composure lent a charm to her 
beauty which prevailed with Xerxes and won his 
smile. Now, this is far from being an uncommon 
experience with the children of God. That which 
in the prospect is most formidable turns out to be 
in the reality most simple. They go anxiously for- 
ward, distressing themselves with the question, 
" Who shall roll us away the stone ?" but when 
they come up to the place they find it " already 
rolled away," and an angel sitting on it. It is not 
that there was no need for anxiety ; it is not, either, 
that there was no necessity for prayer ; but, rather, 
that in the supreme moment all cause of anxiety is 
removed, and the prayer is both fully and speedily 
answered. When God asks us to perform some 
arduous or dangerous duty, we may rely that the 



192 ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

way up to the duty will be made open to us, and 
that strength will be given to us for its discharge. 
That is a true word which is given to us through 
Isaiah : " I will make darkness light before them 
and crooked things straight. These things will I do 
unto them, and not forsake them."* The blessing 
of Asher — " as thy days, so shall thy strength be "t 
— is made over to every Christian in the new prom- 
ise to Paul : " My grace is sufficient for thee : for 
my strength is made perfect in weakness." $ How 
often and in how many ways have these been made 
good to Christians in these days ! It is a time of 
extremity ; the enemies of truth are bitterly assail- 
ing the very citadel of the faith ; and now a stand 
has to be made which shall determine the issue for 
years. The eyes of all humble Christians are 
turned to one singularly-gifted man ; all are saying 
that, like Esther, he has come to the kingdom for 
such a time as this. But he is full of anxiety and 
trepidation. At length he consents to lift the 
standard and enter on the conflict, and when the 
time comes he is carried away out of himself and 
so sensibly helped by the Spirit of God that he 
sweeps everything before him on the resistless 
torrent of his eloquence. Or there is a terrible 
disease invading the frame ; it cannot be cured, 
and if let alone it will issue in a lingering illness 
and painful death. There is nothing for it but a 

* Isaiah xlii., 16. f Deut. xxxiii., 25. :}: 2 Cor. xii., 9. 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. 193 

critical surgical operation, and yet from that the 
patient shrinks. At length, however, the consent 
is given. It is to be performed on a certain day 
and at a certain hour. The meanwhile is given to 
prayer, and all the friends and relatives are re- 
quested, each in his own closet, to join in the sup- 
plication. Then, when the hour strikes, the diseased 
one walks with a strength that is not her own into 
the room, and gives herself into the hands of the 
surgeons, saying, " Living or dying, I am the 
Lord's." The shrinking is gone, the fear is sub- 
dued, and there is nothing but a calm heroism, 
which is the gift of God for the occasion. Or, yet 
again, a difficult duty is to be performed — a brother 
is to be expostulated with for some serious sin, or 
to be warned of some insidious danger. But we do 
not know how he will take it, and the question 
comes to be whether our effort to save him may 
not aggravate the danger to which he is exposed. 
Who will undertake the task } There is one who, 
of all others, seems to be the fittest ; but the very 
idea of it fills him with anxiety. How shall he pro- 
ceed ? There is nothing for it but prayer ; and in 
the faith that God will answer he goes forward. 
He finds the way marvellously opened. He has a 
most satisfactory interview. All his fears are dis- 
pelled — he has saved his brother! Who has not 
known of many instances like these ? They are 
just as remarkable as this case of Esther here, and 
they all encourage us to go forward to the crisis 
9 



194 ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

that is inevitable, in the full assurance that God 
will go before us to prepare our way and give us His 
grace to sustain our hearts. And they tell us, also, 
that when the last trial comes, and we shall be re- 
quired to put off this tabernacle and enter in before 
the King of Kings, we shall find dying grace for a 
dying hour. " These things," saith Jehovah, " will 
I do unto them and not forsake them." Even if 
we had not seen so many fulfilments of His word, it 
would still be our duty and our privilege to trust 
Him ; but now that we have witnessed so many 
proofs of His faithfulness, who would think of 
doubting His promise ? 

But, in the second place, we may learn from what 
is recorded here of Haman, that when the heart is 
not right with God, a little matter will make a great 
misery. In spite of all his glory and all his pos- 
sessions, Haman's happiness was poisoned by Mor- 
decai's contempt. He thought that but for that 
one thing he would be perfectly happy. But, alas ! 
he had made quite a wrong diagnosis of his case. 
He mistook the symptom for the disease. He 
did lack one thing for true felicity, but that one 
thing was not the obeisance of Mordecai, but a 
heart right with God. For happiness does not 
consist in the bearing of others towards us, but in 
the relation of our own souls to God. If Haman 
had possessed a right spirit, renewed by the grace 
of God, the conduct of Mordecai would have cost 
him little thought. But with the self-centred heart 



, ESTHER THE QUEEN. 1 95 

he had, always worshipping itself, and always con- 
cerned about itself, even if Mordecai had done 
homage to him, there would have been something 
else which, like the dead fly in the ointment, would 
have made the whole unsavory. There is only one 
infallible recipe for happiness, and that is the pos- 
session of a heart at peace with God and regener- 
ated by the Holy Spirit. No matter what a man 
has, if he have not that he will still be craving for 
something different from what he has, and as soon 
as he gets that it will lose its attraction for him, 
and he will cry for something else. Now, it is just 
such a heart that Christ promises to give to the be- 
liever, and in giving him that he puts a fountain of 
happiness into himself which will be independent 
of all external circumstances and influences. You 
may condemn the folly of- Haman here, but until 
you have a new heart, such as Christ bestows, 
you may depend upon it that you are repeating 
that folly, in some form or other, in your own his- 
tory. 

And that leads me to say that the converse of 
my second lesson from this chapter is just as true 
as that lesson is itself. I have been remarking that 
when the heart is not right with God a little matter 
will make a great misery ; but now I observe, as 
my third lesson from this history, that when a little 
matter makes a great misery, that is an evidence 
that the heart is not right vvith God. I have the 
conviction that this experience of Haman's is far 



196 ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

from being unknown among us in these days. I 
would not say that every man has his Mordecai 
sitting in the gate, and feels his happiness poisoned 
thereby ; but there are many in whose cases things 
equally unimportant as Mordecai's lack of obeis- 
ance have made as much misery in their souls. 
Now, wherever that is true, you have something 
wrong with the heart. The person either has not 
discovered and appropriated the value of Christ, or 
he has for the time lost sight of all that the Lord is 
to him. When little crosses or cares or unpleasant- 
nesses are looked at, as it were, through a micro- 
scope, and made to bulk so largely before our eyes 
that we can see nothing but them, we are just as 
bad as Haman was, and we need to revise our 
whole theory of life. If, like Paul, we can say, "to 
me to live is Christ," these mosquito troubles will 
not concern us much ; but if they count for a great 
deal with us, and we act as if our v/hole happiness 
depended upon them, then we have reason to fear 
that our hearts are still unregenerate, and that our 
lives are devoted to our own ease and enjoyment, 
rather than to the service of the Lord. The " one 
thing needful " is a new heart, created in us through 
faith in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, and 
if we are harping continually on the lack of any 
other thing — whether it be Mordecai's obeisance 
or Naboth's vineyard or whatever else — we are 
still in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of in- 
iquity. 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. 197 

Finally; it is a great misfortune when a man's 
worst counsellors are in his own house. If Zeresh 
had been a woman of sense, she 'would have talked 
to Haman in quite another strain than that which 
she adopted. Instead of inflaming his hatred of 
Mordecai, she would dextrously, and by the method 
of indirectness which every good wife knows how 
to employ, have turned his thoughts away from 
him altogether, and fixed them on the blessings in 
his lot which he had already enumerated. But in- 
stead of that, she was vastly worse than he was, for 
he refrained himself, but she counselled immediate 
action and the preparation of a cross, on which 
Mordecai might be crucified the next day. She 
was to him what Jezebel was to Ahab in sacred 
history, or what in the great drama of the poet 
Lady Macbeth was to her husband — the spur in his 
side inciting him to evil deeds, which perhaps he 
would never have got the length of devising but for 
her instigation ; and, if all the truth were known, it 
might appear that she had been at the hatching of 
the plot which was to mature, as they supposed, on 
the thirteenth of Adar. As Dr. Raleigh has said 
here, "The truth is, women are the best and the 
worst. Because they can be the best, they can be 
the worst. Because they can rise to the highest 
in moral grandeur, in self-sacrificing love, in the 
things which bring human nature nearest to the 
angelic world, therefore they can sink to the lowest, 
and when ' past feeling,' can be most like the angels 



198 ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

fallen." * Here, then, is a beacon of warning for 
all wedded wives. Let them beware of adding fuel 
to a fire already burning far too strongly in their 
husband's hearts, as Zeresh did here. When they 
see those whom they love best going in the way of 
envy or passion or revenge, let them exert them- 
selves wisely, yet firmly, to alter their determination. 
And let those husbands who have wives that are 
wise enough to see when they are going astray, 
and brave enough to endeavor to keep them from 
doing that which is wrong, thank God for them as 
for the richest blessings of their lives. A wife who 
is merely the echo of her husband, or v/ho, as in 
the instance before us, only seconds and supports 
that which she sees he is determined upon, is no 
helpmeet for any man. But she who has the clear 
eye to see the evil that is in his purpose, the strong 
love that would rather brave his displeasure than 
be a party to his wrong-doing, and the happy tact 
of leading him in the right path, while she seems 
only to follow — she is the woman whose " price is 
far above rubies." Happy is the man who has 
such a helper and who knows her value ! 

* TAe Book of Esther, by Alex. Raleigh, D.D., p. 129. 



VII. 

A SLEEPLESS NIGHT. 
Esther VI. 

The banquet is past, and the night has closed 
over the city Shushan. In the house of Haman 
may be heard the hammering of those who, accord- 
ing to the decision of the family conclave, have been 
hastily commanded to have a gallows ready by the 
dawn for the execution of the stiff-backed Mordecai 
thereon. But in the palace of Xerxes it is far other- 
wise. There all have retired to rest, and there is 
nothing within or without to break the silence save 
the pacing of the guard to and fro upon his wearj^ 
and monotonous beat. And yet, in spite of all the 
luxury that was about him, and all the silence that 
reigned around him, the King could not sleep. 
Powerful as he was, he could not compel that " sweet 
oblivion " to come at his command , and the re- 
pose which, unsought, had "steeped" the "senses'' 
of many of his poorest subjects " in forgetfulness," 
refused to visit him with its refreshing unconscious- 
ness, in spite of all the means he used for its allure- 
ment. We do not know what caused his wakeful- 



200 ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

ness, but such an experience is not so uncommon 
among ourselves that we need to seek eagerly for 
an explanation of it. Perhaps he had exceeded in 
some way or other at the banquet, and is paying 
thus the penalty of his imprudence. Or he may 
have been piqued by Esther's postponement of her 
request until the morrow into a curiosity as to what 
she could be taking such measures to obtain, v/hich 
was worrying him because he could neither gratify 
it nor yet be content to wait for its satisfaction. Or 
he may have begun to revolve in his mind some 
new scheme of ambition, the working out of which 
would not allow him to sleep when otherwise he 
might have dropped over; and then, having thus 
banished his first drowsiness, he could not bring it 
back when he would gladly have done so. But at 
last he gives up all hope of slumber, and the ques- 
tion becomes " What shall I do to while away the 
tedious hours until the morning?" A common re- 
source on such occasions in Persia was music ; but 
that does not seem to have attracted him, and at 
length the thought suggests itself to him to have 
the records of his reign brought out and read to 
him — much as one now, in similar circumstances, 
might seek to amuse himself by the perusal of an 
old diary. Many things in these chronicles would 
be anything but amusing or agreeable to him, par- 
ticularly the portions referring to his Grecian expe- 
dition, but whether from design or at the request 
of the monarch, or, as men say (veiling their igno- 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. 20I 

ranee of all causes thereby), by accident, the Reader 
chose that section in which was registered the great 
service which Mordecai had rendered Xerxes in the 
discovery and revelation of the plot which Bigthana 
and Teresh had concocted for his assassination. 
The rehearsal of this now almost forgotten incident 
led to the inquiry whether any honor or dignity 
had been conferred on Mordecai as a reward for 
his fidelity ; and when he found that no such token 
of gratitude had been given to his preserver, he felt 
that he had been grossly neglectful in the case. It 
was neither seemly in itself nor politic in him to 
let such a service go unrecognized, and therefore 
he resolved that the matter should receive immedi- 
ate attention. 

Just then, however, he heard a stir in the court 
as of the arrival of some one eager for an audience, 
for it was now the dawn. He asked who the early- 
comer was, and being informed that it was Haman, 
he said, " Let him come in." The Agagite, it is not 
unlikely, had not slept much that night either ; for 
revenge is a poor anodyne, and hatred is a bad bed- 
fellow. So he had risen early that he might follow 
the counsel of Teresh and get Mordecai out of the 
way in time for his going " merrily," in to the ban- 
quet to which Esther had invited him. Therefore, 
before any one else was astir, he had come to ask 
that Mordecai might be impaled upon his brand-new 
cross of fifty cubits high. But the King knew noth- 
ing of all that, and before there was time or oppor- 
9* 



202 ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

tunity for the introduction of anything else he ac- 
costed him thus : " You are just in time, Haman, 
to help me to decide this question : what shall be 
done unto the man whom the King delighteth to 
honor ?" "Aha !" thought Haman, " here is some 
new glory that is designed for me, and, as it is -left 
to myself, I will make it something that shall min- 
ister to my further promotion." So, in the full 
assurance that he was prescribing for himself, he 
said : " Let the royal apparel be brought which the 
King useth to v/ear, and the horse that the King 
rideth upon, and the crown royal which is set upon 
his head : and let this apparel and horse be delivered 
to the hand of one of the King's most noble princes, 
that they may array the man withal whom the King 
delighteth to honor, and bring him on horseback 
through the street of the city, and proclaim before 
him, ' Thus shall it be done to the man whom the 
King delighteth to honor.' " 

Had he asked these things avowedly for himself, 
Xerxes would have felt as Solomon did when he 
said to his mother concernmg Adonijah, "Ask for 
him the kingdom also," for he would have seen 
that nothing short of that would satisfy his ambi- 
tion. But the Agagite was not so foolish as to ask 
these things directly. He thought, however, that 
as the King had consulted him apparently for some 
third party, while he really meant himself, he could 
put all that in without being suspected ; and then, 
if he turned out to be right in his premonition, he 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. 205 

would be presented to the citizens of Shushan in 
the royal garb, and the procession would familiarize 
them with the thought of him as King, virtually 
saying to them, " Here, good people, here is your 
future Emperor." It was thus a new scheme of 
his own, extemporized on the spot, for the attain- 
ment of the throne itself. It was not that he cared 
merely to have the garments and insignia of royalty 
for a few hours, but that he might thus formally 
propose himself as the next King, and that, too, 
under the guise of being honored by the present. 
But how his airy castle would fade away like the 
mirage of an Eastern desert, and his heart would 
sink within him, when he heard these words : " Make 
haste, and take the apparel and the horse, as thou 
hast said, and do even so to Mordecai the Jew, that 
sitteth at the King's gate : let nothing fail of all that 
thou hast spoken." Was it possible that he had 
heard aright? Had it been for Mordecai that he 
had drawn out this splendid programme? Was he 
himself to be that one of the King's most noble 
princes who was to walk as an attendant at the 
stirrup of Mordecai while he rode in state, with the 
King's apparel on, through the city street ? Was 
his to be the voice that should proclaim the words : 
" Thus shall it be done to the man whom the King 
delighteth to honor?" Oh, it was a bitter dose to 
swallow ! Had the man who was to be thus hon- 
ored been any other than a Jew, or, if a Jew, had 
he been any other than the hated Mordecai, it 



204 ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

would not have been so bad. But that such a 
triumph should be given to the one man whose 
refusal to do homage to him had taken all the joy 
out of his exaltation , that the programme for that 
triumph should have been suggested by himself; 
and that he should be selected to carry it out, was 
mortification indeed. Had he been planning for 
Mordecai all the time he had been thinking of him- 
self ? Yea, verily, that was the Nemesis of Provi- 
dence ; and yet, bad as it was, that was only one- 
half of the matter, for before long he would find 
that he had also been planning for himself when he 
had been thinking of Mordecai. The honor which 
he had designed for himself went to Mordecai, and 
the destruction which he had devised for Mordecai 
fell upon himself. The royal apparel was worn by 
the Jew, and the Agagite was hanged upon the gal- 
lows. 

But we must not anticipate. Mortified as he 
was, Haman had to carry out the royal mandate. 
There was no evading that ; and so he went, with 
the best face he could, and led Mordecai through 
the city, while the people wondered to see '^ the 
Jews' enemy " in the place of lackey to a Jew. 

When the procession was over, Mordecai, lik'e 
the faithful servant that he was, went back to his 
post at the King's gate. His head had not been 
turned by the brief honor, nor his heart uplifted by 
the short-lived glory, for he was well ballasted, and 
his people were not yet delivered. But Haman 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. 205 

went to his house " in mourning and with his head 
covered." He could not look upon any one with- 
out shame, and he did not want any one to see that 
shame , so he covered his head to conceal his mor- 
tification. When he reached his house he sent for 
his wise men — Magi, perhaps — and his wife, and told 
them all that had happened ,• but they were " mis- 
erable comforters," for all they did was to make 
articulate and audible the unuttered forebodings of 
his own guilty heart. They said : " If Mordecai be 
of the seed of the Jews, before whom thou hast be- 
gun to fall, thou shalt not prevail against him, but 
shalt surely fall before him." Wise men, indeed ! 
But why did not Haman consult them sooner ? Or 
why, if he so consulted them, did they not give him 
this opinion of the Jews before ? We cannot tell ; 
but now, at least, they are reminded by the strange 
things that had happened to Mordecai, that the 
Jews as a nation had a peculiar history, and the 
fact that they still existed, in spite of all the efforts 
which men had put forth for their destruction, had, 
when taken in connection with Mordecai's triumph, 
convinced them that they were, so to say, " a people 
of destiny," and that those who assailed them would 
be ultimately overthrown. If such was their view 
of the situation, they were perfectly correct- — but 
alas ! the warning came too late to be of service — 
for it was like Daniel's reading of the handwriting 
on the wall, and it sent Haman away anything but 
"merrily" to Esther's banquet. 



206 ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

Now, in turning from this highly-dramatic story 
to seek for its practical lessons, we may say that we 
shall miss the great purpose for which it is here 
told if we fail to see in it an illustration of the 
working of God's providence. Note, in the first 
place, the minute universality of God's supervision 
and control. The notion of many is that Provi- 
dence is concerned only with great matters. But 
those v/ho so believe forget that perfection in an)^- 
thing cannot be secured without attention to de- 
tails ; and that great issues often hinge on appar- 
ently very trifling affairs j and such a history as this 
will show how true both these considerations are. 
A sleepless night is in itself no very important 
thing, but if, in the history of Xerxes, this wake- 
fulness had come either the night before or the 
night after, it would not have contributed, as it so 
apparently does, to the deliverance of Mordecai 
and the Jews from the plot of Ham an. Again, it is 
a matter of little moment what a man shall do to 
fill in the hours of sleeplessness and keep himself 
from ennui ; but if Xerxes had adopted any other 
plan than that which he followed, or if the attend- 
ant had chosen to read from any other section of 
the chronicles of the kingdom than that which he 
selected, there would have been nothing to recall 
Mordecai's services to the King's remembrance, 
and so there would have been no obstacle in the 
way of his granting the request of Haman for his 
execution. Once more; if Haman had not come 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. 207 

to the court at the time he did, and been introduced 
into the presence at the precise moment when the 
mind of the King was pondering the question what 
honor should be conferred on Mordecai, then the 
first word might have been his, and so the fiat might 
have gone out for the consigning of Mordecai to the 
gallows, even at the moment when the monarch was 
thinking about doing him honor. For it is not 
likely that Haman would have named his victim, 
any more than he had named the Jews when he 
procured the decree for their destruction ; and so 
the order might have gone, and might have been so 
speedily carried out that the mischief would have 
been irreparable. Here, then, are four things, each 
of which is, in itself, almost infinitesimal to us — how 
much more to Him who is Himself the Infinite ! 
— and yet, any one of them being different, the re- 
sult could not have been obtained. But by the 
concurrence of them all the desired object was se- 
cured. Now, this history is not exceptional in any 
respect. It certainly is not exceptional in this par- 
ticular. You see the same supervision of the most 
apparently trifling things by God in the biography 
of Joseph, and there are many striking illustrations 
of it in secular history. A change of wind from 
west to east is not a great matter, and yet on such 
a change as that at a particular hour of a particular 
day, the history of Great Britain turned ; for there- 
by the fleet of William of Orange was wafted to 
Torbay, while that of James II. was by the same 



2 08 ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

means prevented from putting out to sea to inter- 
cept its progress. Nay, take any critical event, 
either in the history of a nation or in the Ufe of an 
individual, and you will discover that it has depend- 
ed on the concurrence and co-operation of many 
smaller things, each of which might, humanly speak- 
ing, have been different, and the absence of any 
one of which would have made a failure out of what 
was truly a success. We understand therefore now, 
perhaps, a little better what the Saviour meant when 
he said : "The very hairs of your head are all num- 
bered ;" and again, " A sparrow cannot fall on the 
ground without your Father ; be of good cheer, ye 
are of more value than many sparrows." 

But note in the second place that we have here 
no interference with the operation of the laws of 
nature, and no infringement of the liberty of moral 
agents. We have no record of any miracle in this 
case. There is nothing supernatural in a man's 
having a sleepless night, or in his fixing on a cer- 
tain part of his chronicles to read, or in the coming 
in of another person upon him at a particular junc- 
ture; and no single one of the actors in the case 
was working under compulsion — each one knew at 
the moment that he was following his own bent. 
We know this was so, for we have had parallel 
things in our own experience. Now, it was through 
these, and therefore through ordinary operations of 
ordinary laws, and through the free actions of free 
agents, that all this was secured. But it was not 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. 2 09 

less the work of God, or less glorifying to God, be- 
cause of that. I will not undertake to make clear 
to you how God thus works through the volitions of 
moral agents, and through the ordinary laws of nat- 
ure, without interfering with either ; but that He 
does so I take to be not only the great revelation 
of this Book of Esther, but also the doctrine of the 
Scriptures generally ; and I am sure that it is con- 
firmed alike by observation and experience. Now 
this non-miraculous providence, if I may so call it, 
is a greater and grander and more glorious achiev- 
ment of God's than it would have been if the same 
results had been accomplished through the direct 
forth-putting of His own omnipotence. A miracle 
is a work of power. It is done and done with. 
But such an operation as we have been tracing 
here to-night required something more than power 
for the carrying of it through. There was a deliv- 
erance wrought out for the Hebrews in their early 
history by God, but that, as we know, was effected 
mainly by miracle, and it was undoubtedly glorious. 
This deliverance of the nation in their later history, 
however, was equally wrought out by God, but it 
was not effected by miracle, and just for that reason 
I do not hesitate to say that it was the more glorious 
of the two. It required — I may say it reverently — 
more from God than the other. It showed more of 
God than the other, and, in particular, it gives us 
more of an explanation of our own daily life than 
the other. For it tells us that just as God was in 



210 ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

and over all these little matters here, so He is in and 
over all the details of our common experience ; and 
he who has the eye to perceive it will discover in 
our ordinary existence a continuous working of God 
through the laws of nature and the actions of men, 
that is greater than the grandest miracle vmich was 
wrought through Moses. " This is indeed the great 
miracle of Providence, that no miracles are needed 
for the accomplishment of its purposes." I do not 
depreciate the supernatural ; I believe in the mira- 
cles, and I believe, too, that they were meant for a 
good and wise purpose; but greater than all mira- 
cles to me is that providence of God which, through 
ordinary laws in nature and common volitions of 
men, works out its purposes from hour to hour, and 
from day to day, and from year to year, through the 
ages, and which at length will be seen and acknowl- 
edged by all to be bright with glory and benign 
with blessing. 

Now, if what I have advanced on this important 
matter be true, it may cast some light on the way 
in which God answers His people's prayers. There 
are those v/ho affirm that to ask God to confer on 
us a physical blessing is to ask Him to work a mir- 
acle in our behalf. Even if I believed that, I would 
still ask Him for what I need, because he has com- 
manded me to do so, and I would trustfully leave 
the method of His answer in His own hands. 
But i do not believe that to ask a physical blessing 
from God is to ask Him to work a miracle in our 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. 211 

behalf, and such a history as this of Esther confirms 
me in that non-behef. Mordecai and Esther ap- 
pealed, in their own fashion of fasting, to God for 
help, and He did help them, but He helped them 
without miracle. He helped them through the or- 
dinary workings of the laws of nature, and through 
perfectly natural and free volitions and actions of 
men. And thus I believe He will answer our 
prayers when we ask for such temporal things as He 
sees to be for our good. How He can do so I can- 
not explain ; but to say that He cannot do so is to 
arrogate to ourselves omniscience ; for if there be 
one thing that we do not know it may be that very 
thing. Nay, more: to say that He cannot do so is 
to repudiate the teaching of this Book, and to shut 
our eyes to the meaning of our own lives. 

Then, finally, here, if what I have advanced in 
this connection be correct, it may tend to reconcile 
us to the minor inconveniences that come upon us 
in life. What an amount of fretting we do over 
little things ! We go off our sleep, or we miss a 
train, or we have to wait for some tedious hours at a 
railroad station, or we approach the harbor in a fog 
and have to lie outside for a long while, so near our 
homes and yet so far from them, or a friend disap- 
points us and our plans are deranged. But why 
need I go on ? Even as I am passing from one to 
another you are yourselves recalling some of the 
unpleasantnesses of last week and your impatience 
under them. Yet why should we be impatient if it 



212 ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

be true that even these little things are taken cog- 
nizance of by God, and woven by Him for His 
glory and our good into the fabric of our lives ? 
My friends, if, when we are disposed to be irritable 
over such tiny inconveniences, we could but pause 
a moment and say within ourselves, " This is all in 
the plan of God concerning us," we should at once 
have self-control. We might see, too, if we cared to 
look for it, some good purpose for which it was 
sent ; and even if we failed to note any objective re- 
sult that was thereby effected, we should still have 
to be grateful for the trustful patience which it fos- 
tered within ourselves. 

So much time has been taken up by me in the 
unfolding of the Providence of God, as illustrated 
by this narrative, that I shall linger now only to 
mention, and that but barely, two other practical 
lessons. First of all, think how valuable God's 
commonest gifts are. The proverb says that we 
never know the worth of the well until it is dry ; 
and I fear that the same thing is true of more bless- 
ings than water. We know what health means, 
truly, only when we have lost it , and I fear that we 
must also say that we never fully realize what sleep 
is until we find it impossible for us to fall asleep. 
Now, as in this age of mental overwork, this very 
sleeplessness has become a disease (called by the 
learned name insomnia) ; it may not be out of place 
for me to utter a warning against those things which 
tend to produce it, for when it once comes it is 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. 213 

hard indeed to drive it away and get back again to 
the repose of childhood. Keep your conscience 
clean, that nothing of guilt may put thorns into your 
pillow. Take no ambitious schemes with you to 
your couch, lest you should be constrained to lie 
awake in the attempt to work them out. Finish 
each day's business in its own day, that there may 
be no nervous anxiety in your mind about the mor- 
row. Do not work, as a rule, far into the night. 
Watch over your table, and take nothing there that 
will make you restless. Above everything else, let 
Paul's prescription be your 07ily anodyne, for all 
others are to be shunned as you would the plague : 
" Be worried about nothing, but in everything, by 
prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, make 
your requests known unto God, and the peace of 
God will keep your hearts and minds by Christ 
Jesus." Then when you find yourself getting into 
a habit of awaking at a certain time in the early 
morning and lying awake for hours in the darkness, 
realize that Nature is ringing for you an alarm-bell, 
and stop right off, no matter at what cost. You 
have been working or living in some respects un- 
wisely. Make it your business to find out what that 
respect is, and, remorselessly, alter your course ; 
for sleeplessness is nothing else than the protest 
of your constitution against some outrage which 
you have done to it. Think more of this com- 
mon blessing of sleep, and see in that one of 
the richest tokens of the divine goodness which 



214 ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

is not to be trifled with, but to be valued and 
enjoyed. 

And this leads me, by a very natural transition, to 
ask whether you have ever reviewed your obligations 
to God for all that He has done for you ? Xerxes 
utilized his sleepless hours in discovering wherein 
he had failed to meet his obligations to his benefac- 
tors. But what a benefactor you have had in God ! 
Not only has He given you those common and or- 
dinary blessings to which I have referred, but you 
have been the wards of His constant protection. He 
has given you all you have enjoyed. And when not 
your life merely, but your soul, was endangered, and 
your sin was calling for condign punishment on your 
head, He gave His only Son for your salvation. 
Xerxes's indebtedness to Mordecai was nothing in 
comparison to your obligation to Jehovah, Now 
let me ask, what have you done to Him for that ? 
Will you allow yourselves to be outdone in grati- 
tude by a heathen monarch, and that such a mon- 
arch as we know Xerxes to have been ? Surely, if he 
felt that some recognition was due to Mordecai for 
delivering him from the hands of the assassin, you 
ought to honor God with the service of your whole 
lives for sending His Son into the world for your 
salvation. Now the question I want you at this 
moment to face, and which you do not need to put 
off until you have a sleepless night, is this : " How 
much owest thou to thy God ?" and how wilt thou 
meet that obligation ? Here is Paul's answer : " Ye 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. 215 

are bought with a price : therefore glorify God in 
your body, a'nd in your spirit, which are God's." No 
mere temporary enthronement of Him for a day, or 
for a few hours of a day, will suffice. No mere giv- 
ing Him the form of royalty over you for a little 
season will meet the case. " I beseech you there- 
fore, by the mercies of God, that you present yoUr 
bodies, a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, 
which is your reasonable service." Thus only can 
you honor God for all His beneficence and grace to 
you. 



VIII. 

RETRIBUTION. 

Esther VII., i— VIII., 2. 

If the news of the morning which had seen Mor- 
decai led in triumph through the streets of Shushan, 
with Haman as his lackey, found their way into the 
royal harem, as they probably did, they would so 
gladden the heart of Esther as to send her to the 
preparation of her banquet with good hope of her 
ultimate success in her intercession for her people. 
The elevation of her cousin, brief though^ it was, 
would seem to her the prophecy of the deliverance 
of those who had been doomed to destruction for 
his sake ; and though there would still be some 



2l6 ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

misgivings in her soul, she would look forward to 
the presentation of her request with more calmness 
than before, and that, of itself, would help to make 
it eifectual. 

With Haman, however, it would be far otherwise. 
The mortification which he had endured in being 
compelled to play the herald in Mordecai's proces- 
sion, and the interpretation given to the Jew's ex- 
altation by his chosen wise men, must have greatly 
damped his spirits, so that he was in no haste to 
repair again to the palace. Not now does he con- 
gratulate himself that he alone of all the subjects 
of the King has been honored with an invitation 
for the second time to banquet with the Queen. 
Everything seemed to be going against him, and it 
is with dark forebodings of some inexplicable ca- 
lamity that he now looks forward to that which 
aforetime he had counted an honor. Willingly, in- 
deed, would he have remained at home, and when 
Harbonah came to summon him to the feast he 
went with a dull and heavy heart. Zeresh told 
him, only yesterday, to get rid of Mordecai, and 
then go "merrily" to the banquet; but now that 
Mordecai had been so honored by the monarch, he 
goes with ill-concealed misery and reluctance to the 
table of Esther. How great a change a few hours 
may make in the outlook of a man ! and how uni- 
versally appropriate the proverb is, " Boast not thy- 
self of to-morrow, for thou knowest not what a day 
may bring forth !" 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. 217 

In the course of the feast Xerxes, having the 
conviction that Esther's request must be one of 
some importance, renewed his kind assurance even 
more graciously than before, saying : " What is thy 
petition, Queen Esther? and it shall be granted 
thee : and what is thy request ? and it shall be per- 
formed, even to the half of the kingdom." And 
now that the critical moment has come she meets 
it nobly. Without any fainting or feebleness, with 
calm dignity and majestic soberness, she makes 
reply : " If I have found favor in thy sight, O King, 
and if it please the King, let my life be given me 
at my petition, and my people at my request. For 
we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to 
be slain, and to perish. But if we had been sold for 
bondmen and bondwomen, I had held my tongue, 
although the enemy could not countervail the King's 
damage." Mark how wise and how strong this 
presentation of the case is. She is not so excited 
as to forget the etiquette of the occasion. As Paul 
had words of courtesy for the most noble Festus 
and for King Agrippa, so here she begins her ap- 
peal with the politeness of a subject, " If I have 
found favor in thy sight ;" and, " if it please the 
King." Then, in the assured possession of the 
monarch's love, she puts herself in the foreground 
as one who had been doomed to death — " Let my 
life be given me at my petition." Yet she will not 
be separated from her kinsmen in her plea, any 

more than she would have been in their fate; and 
10 



2l8 ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

SO she includes them with her thus : " And my peo- 
ple at my request." And when she perceives the 
look of amazement on the countenance of Xerxes 
at the very idea of any one having presumed to 
condemn her to death, she proceeds to use language 
which would at once enlighten him as to her mean- 
ing : " For," she adds, " we are sold^ I and my peo- 
ple," alluding thus in the most delicate way to the 
fact that Haman had covenanted to give him ten 
thousand talents of silver for permission to destroy 
the Jev/s. She did not say that the King himself 
had sold them, but no doubt his own conscience 
said that for her. " We are sold, I and my people," 
" to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish." 
These are the very words of the hated edict, which 
had burned themselves indelibly upon her brain, 
and which accounted for the liberty which she had 
taken, in bringing the matter before him. "For 
if we had been sold for bondmen and bondwomen, 
I would have held my tongue " — since, in that case, 
there would have been a possibility of at least 
partial remedy afterwards, and when righteousness 
began again to prevail with him they might be 
redeemed. But if they were put to death, the evil 
to the Jews would be irreparable ; and it would be 
impossible for any one to make adequate compen- 
sation to the King for the loss which he would 
sustain in the destruction of so many thousands 
of his most peaceable, most industrious, and most 
prosperous subjects. There is some little diffi- 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. 219 

culty in giving the exact sense of these last words : 
" Although the enemy could not countervail the 
King's damage." Literally translated they read 
thus : " Although the enemy is not equal to the 
King's hurt ;" and some would paraphrase it as 
follows : " For it is not worth the King's while to 
trouble himself about the adversary." But the in- 
terpretation which we have given seems to us more 
in harmony with all the circumstances of the case. 
The wholesale destruction of a people, or their ex- 
pulsion from a kingdom, merely on grounds of race 
or religion, inflicts a loss upon those who are guilty 
of it which nothing can repair. It would have been 
well if there had been some one to enforce that 
truth upon the rulers of France when they planned 
and carried through the Massacre of St. Bartholo- 
mew and the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes ; 
for when the Huguenots were banished from that 
land they took with them the mechanical and man- 
ufacturing enterprise of the nation, and enriched 
other countries at an expense to France which 
has not yet been made up. All such Haman-like 
deeds are not merely crimes but blunders ; infringe- 
ments of the laws of political economy as well as 
violations of the sacred principles of liberty, and 
the damage resulting from them cannot be counter- 
vailed. 

Esther's words, though they did not name any 
one directly, must have made it clear to Xerxes 
that she referred to the Jews ; that she was herself 



220 ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

a Jewess ; and that Haman, the author of the de- 
cree which she had quoted, was the adversary whom 
she feared. But though he probably did not need 
her word to assure him that it wa.s so, he asked de- 
finitely who it was that she accused. " Who is he, 
and where is he, that durst presume in his heart to 
do so ?" And to that inquiry Esther answered, 
jDointing, as she spoke, to the pale and crouching 
coward at the table with them, " The man, adver- 
sary and enemy, is Haman : the wretch, this one." 
Such is the collocation of the words in the original, 
and the broken energy by which they are character- 
ized is an indication of the depth and long pent-up 
strength of the emotion with which they were ex- 
pressed ; while the emphatic "this one" at the close 
must have pierced through Haman like a drawn 
sword, and been to him very much what Nathan's 
" Thou art the man !" was to Israel's King. 

" Then Haman was afraid ;" yes, and he had good 
reason for being so, for the King, to show that there 
was no hope of the success of any appeal to him, 
rose and went out into the gardens. That, as he well 
knew, was equivalent to his condemnation, and now 
his only resource was to get Esther to intercede for 
him. But though he knelt before her — Jewess as 
she was — she was inexorable, and the King, coming 
in at the moment, taunted him with rudeness to the 
Queen — not because he believed in the accusation 
which his words implied, but because " he meant to 
tax him with a further offence in not sufficiently re- 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. 221 

specting the person of the Queen." Then he gave 
command, or the word out of his mouth, for his ex- 
ecution, and the attendant chamberlains covered 
his face and took him away. As they were going, 
Harbonah, who had been to Haman's house a short 
while before to fetch him to the banquet, and had 
asked for whom the gallows was intended w^iich he 
saw there in the court, said very suggestively to the 
King : " Behold also the gallows, fifty cubits high, 
which Haman had made for Mordecai, who had 
spoken good for the King, standeth in the house of 
Haman ;" and the immediate answer was, " Hang 
him thereon." When a great man is going down 
the meanest will give him a push, and if Haman 
heard Harbonah's words he might have moral- 
ized a little on the question whether Harbonah's 
obeisance to him in the gate had been of any more 
value than Mordecai's refusal to do him homage. 
For Harbonah's supple genuflection had been noth- 
ing better than a " lively sense of favors to come," 
and now that he had gotten all that Haman had to 
give, he turned, like the time-server that he was, 
to worship the rising sun, even Mordecai, " who 
had spoken good for the King." So, as Mordecai 
got the honor which Haman planned for himself, 
Haman was hanged on the gallows which he had 
erected for Mordecai ; and as his house was confis- 
cated to the King, Xerxes made it over as a gift to 
Esther, who in her turn gave it to Mordecai, whom 
now she introduced to the monarch, telling him of 



2 22 ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

his relationship to her, and of all that he had been 
to her and had done for her in the days of her or- 
phanhood. The result was that the ring of office 
which he had taken from Haman was bestowed on 
Mordecai, who went to his couch that night the 
second in the Empire. It had been an eventful day, 
fraught with terrible retribution to the unscrupulous 
Haman, and full of mercy to the captive Jews. Let 
us see what we can take out of its incidents of 
wisdom and of warning for the regulation of our 
daily lives. And, in the first place, we may surely 
be stimulated to gratitude for the fact that we live 
under happier circumstances than those which are 
here described. What a tyranny that of Xerxes's 
was ! That he should have had it in his . pov/er, 
from favoritismi, or caprice, or for the sake of a 
bribe, to order the destruction of thousands of his 
subjects by one fell decree, was horrible in the ex- 
treme ; and though we can have but little sympathy 
with the victim in this case, it is no less appalling 
that he should have been able, without any trial or 
even form of justice, to order a man to be immedi- 
ately executed. Where, in such a case, v/as the 
security for life or property among the people "? 
And is it wonderful that when an autocrat of this 
sort has exhausted the patience of a long-suffering 
people by his intolerant and intolerable cruelties, 
they should seek to rectify one evil by the commis- 
sion of another, and endeavor to remove him by 
assassination ? We do not, of course, in thus speak- 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. 223 

ing, extenuate the guilt of such an act, but we see 
how easily the commission of it can be explained 
in such circumstances. And we see, too, how grate- 
ful we ought to be that among us the law is su- 
preme ; that every one is equal before the law ; and 
that the poorest among us has a right to a fair and 
open trial before he is visited with any sort of pun- 
ishment. 

And yet, though this is the theory among us, we 
must not shut our eyes to the fact that it is not 
in all cases carried out with absolute impartiali- 
ty. Sometimes there is a miscarriage of justice 
which, to say the least, bears the appearance of be- 
ing due to the political influence or pecuniary gifts 
of the accused or of his friends ; while occasionally 
among the people themselves there is an outbreak 
of blind and bloody cruelty against those of other 
races which is worse than this plot of Haman's 
against the Jews, because it issues no decree and 
gives no warning to its victims. We are amazed at 
the old Empires of Europe, at this time of the day, 
expelling the Jews from their territories, and we ex- 
claim against the tyranny of the Emperors and their 
advisers. But yet, v/ithin our own borders, the 
Chinese are abused in the most shameful manner, 
and there are those who would comm.and them 
forthwith to depart out of our coasts. No doubt it 
is said that they are very undesirable people to 
have among us, and that for our own safety we 
should prevent them landing upon our shores. 



224 ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

Well, that is a new principle for Americans to in- 
sist upon. It has been our boast in the past that 
we have invited the poor and the oppressed of all 
nationalities to come and enjoy with us the bless- 
ings of liberty. But if we are now to begin upon 
another system, then let us carry it through. Are 
all the European immigrants that come hither de- 
sirable people to have among us ? By what test 
shall we secure that none but the right sort of im- 
migrants shall be admitted to our land ? And if 
the wrong sort should be admitted, on what ground 
can we vindicate, before either God or man, their 
wholesale massacre in the midst of us ? Whether 
is the coming of the Chinese among us or the ex- 
istence of Mormonism in the country the greater 
danger to the State ? And so long as we permit 
hundreds of Mormons to come among us every year, 
to be subject like "dumb, driven cattle " to the will 
of an autocracy that is set up here — an imperiufn 
in repiiblica — more arbitrary and tyrannical than 
this of Xerxes, is it not ridiculous to make all this 
ado about a few Chinese ? Then there is the treat- 
ment to which, in some districts, the negroes are 
subjected. True, they have been emancipated ; 
they are being educated, and they are enfranchised 
as citizens of the Republic. But to what advan- 
tage enfranchised if they are shot down when they 
come to exercise their right at the ballot-box? I 
acknowledge that the problem of race as presented 
by the presence among us of seven millions of col- 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. 225 

ored people is a very hard one ; but to make them 
voters and then to shoot them for voting is most 
certainly not the way to solve it. That not only 
murders them, but it murders the law ; and bad as 
the former is, the latter is, I fear, still worse. If, 
therefore, we have any gratitude for our privileges, 
we must see to it that they be preserved, and must 
insist that the supremacy of the law shall be main- 
tained, and that no one shall be condemned or in- 
terfered with until he has had a fair and impartial 
trial. It is a great crime to kill — as twice within 
this generation we have seen killed — the highest 
executive officer in the land, but it is a greater 
crime even than that to murder the law, and we 
should see to it that those who are guilty of that 
are made by the law to suffer the penalty of their 
crime. 

In the second place, let us learn that when we 
have an accusation to make against any one, we 
should make it in his presence. Haman imagined 
that his invitation to Esther's banquet was simply 
and only an honor to himself, but in the end he 
discovered that he was there to meet an accusation 
which she intended to bring against him. If he 
had anything to say for himself, then was the time 
and there was the place to say it ; but the confusion 
that covered him, and the cowardice that character- 
ized him, were abundant indications of his guilt, and 
the King himself, who had been, to his own shame, 
an unconscious particeps crii7iinis^ was a witness 
10* 



2 26 ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

to the truth of what Esther had advanced. Now, 
in all fairness even to one who, as we think, has 
deeply wronged us, we should accuse him to his 
face and not behind his back. Let us say nothing 
of a man in his absence that we would not say in 
his presence. And if one is to be condemned, let 
it not be until he has first been brought face to face 
with his accuser. 

In the third place, let us take note that there is a 
retributive element in the providence of God. As 
I have already remarked, Persia, under Xerxes, was 
very far indeed from being constitutionally governed, 
and we cannot, especially in these days, approve of 
his ways of doing things. But yet, through these 
ways of his, God was by His providence securing 
that Haman. should receive the reward of his own 
doings. He who, by the will of an autocrat, sought 
the destruction of a whole people, was by that same 
will consigned to death ; and on the gallows which 
he had erected for the execution of Mordecai he 
was himself impaled. The Psalmist has said of 
some one in his day : " He made a pit, and digged 
it, and is fallen into the ditch which he made. His 
mischief shall return upon his own head, and his 
violent dealing shall come down upon his own 
pate."* And again : " The heathen are sunk down 
in the pit that they made : in the net which they 
hid is their own foot taken. The Lord is known 

* Psalms vii., 15, 16. 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. 227 

by the judgment which He executeth : the wicked is 
snared in the work of his own hands.""*" While the 
Wise Man has generahzed the law into this proverb : 
' Whoso diggeth a pit shall fall therein : and he 
that roUeth a stone, it will return upon him."t The 
persecutors of Daniel were thrown into the lions' 
den, out of which he had been delivered ; and 
Adonibezek was constrained in the day of his ret- 
ribution and mutilation to say: "As I have done, 
so hath God requited me." We all remember the 
ballad of Southey which tells how Sir Ralph the 
Rover, who cut away the Inch Cape Bell, perished 
with all his crew upon the Inch Cape Rock ; and 
even secular historians have been constrained to 
remark on illustrations of the fulfilment of this law 
of Providence. Thus Macaulay reminds us that no 
man ever made a more unscrupulous use of the 
legislative power for the destruction of his enemies 
than Thomas Cromwell, and that it was by the un- 
scrupulous use of the legislative power that he was 
himself destroyed. And Alison recognizes in the 
death of Murat a memorable instance of the " moral 
retribution which often attends upon great deeds, of 
iniquity, and by the instrumentality of the very acts 
that appeared to place them beyond its reach." He 
underwent, in 18 15, the very fate to which, seven 
years before, he had consigned a hundred Spaniards 
of Madrid, guilty of no other crime than of defend- 

* Psalms ix., 15, 16. f Proverbs xxvi. , 27. 



228 ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

ing their country, and this, as the historian adds, 
" by the application of a law to his own case which 
he himself had introduced to check the attempts 
of the Bourbons to regain a throne which he had 
usurped." Thus, often, in the words of the great 
dramatist, the engineer is "hoist with his own pe- 
tard ;" and we see that even in this life there is 
retribution. 

But it maybe said that though this is observable 
in great matters and with great people, it is not 
found in small. And. to that I reply that there is 
nothing small in the providence of God. We have 
seen, in our exposition of this book, that it includes 
the smallest things; and Christ has told us that a 
sparrow cannot fall to the ground without our 
Father. No matter, therefore, how lowly may be 
our lot, or how limited may be our transactions, if 
we commit sin we may be sure that sooner or later 
our sin will find us out, and that our punishment 
may come in the form of some evil Vv^hich we had 
planned for another. "Ashes always fly back in 
the face of him that throws them ;" and, " If one 
will sow thorns, he had better not walk barefoot." 
Injustice, cruelty, wrong, of whatever sort, is a 
boomerang which returns to the hand of him who 
threw it ; and we ought to exercise ourselves to keep 
our feet in the paths of rectitude and holiness. 

But others may say that this law is not absolutely 
universal, and that there have been cases in which 
it has not been fulfilled. To that I reply that there 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. 229 

are such anomalies in God's providence on earth, 
but the existence of these is only a reason for our 
believing that the retribution which has not over- 
taken the sinner here will surely come upon him 
hereafter ; for then God " shall render to every man 
according to his works." This is a truth which, as 
it seems to me, needs to be proclaimed with partic- 
ular plainness to the men of this generation. They 
dwell, with much unction, on the love and tender- 
ness of God, and if they but took in the whole truth 
they could not dwell too much upon it ; but they 
forget the judicial aspect of His government, and 
the terrible nature of some of His retributions. It 
is no kindness, however, to keep these things out of 
view. God's moral administration is retributive, 
and the wrong- doer must one day confront the 
wrong that he has done — nay, must confront the 
avenging God, who comes to reckon with him for 
the wrong. He may meet Him in some desolating 
stroke of His providence ; but, in any event, he 
must meet Him on His judgment-throne — and, un- 
less he repent and return to God here, his appeal 
for mercy there will be as powerless as was that of 
Haman to Esther in the case before us. 



IX. 

A NEW DECREE. 
Esther VIII., 3-17. 

It had been a wonderful and exciting day. The 
guilty had been summarily executed, and the faith- 
ful had been signally exalted. Xerxes, therefore, 
would retire to his couch in such a frame of mind 
as would conduce to his enjoyment of refreshing 
rest, without the use of any expedient like that by 
which he had sought to beguile or remove the 
sleeplessness of the preceding night. But it would 
be otherwise with Esther, and I can imagine her 
lying long awake pondering what her next step 
should be ; for she was in " a place where two seas 
met." On the one hand, the enemy of her foster- 
father and her race had been removed, and Morde- 
cai had been promoted to the highest position in 
the State, so that there was now no danger either of 
his life or of her own. For these things, therefore, 
there would be gladness and gratitude in her heart. 
But, on the other hand, the decree which had been 
issued at the instigation of Haman remained in 
force, and unless something were done immediately 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. 23 1 

the thirteenth of the month Adar would see the de- 
struction of her people in every province of the em- 
pire. The remembrance of that would fill her with 
anxiety, and the great question with her would come 
to be, what her duty was in the case. The work 
for which, as Mordecai had said, she had been 
brought to the kingdom, was still unperformed until 
the salvation of the Jews was secured, and she 
could not rest until she had done everything in her 
power for the attainment of that. But what was 
she to do ? Xerxes had been very prompt in his 
dealing with Haman, but he seemed to have forgot- 
ten the decree, so that, left to himself, it was not 
likely that he would do anything more in the mat- 
ter, and it would be too bad to ask Mordecai to make 
his first business with the King as grand vizer of a 
kind so personal and painful. There was nothing 
for it, therefore, but another application to Xerxes by 
herself, and that accordingly she resolved to make. 
As on the former occasion, she presented herself 
unannounced to the King, and was relieved to see 
again the golden sceptre held out towards her. Re- 
lieved, I say, for she still took this liberty at the 
risk of her life ; and while the tokens of favor 
which she had already received were encouraging 
enough, it was just possible that the monarch might 
take a sudden pique, and, saying within himself, 
" What, Esther again ? this is getting monotonous 
and must be put an end to," might utterly ignore 
her presence, and leave her to be taken away by 



232 ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

the chamberlains who had so unceremoniously re- 
moved the Agagite. But He in whose hand is the 
King's heart, and who "turneth it whithersoever 
he will,"* inclined the monarch to receive her 
graciously; whereupon she rose and said: "If it 
please the Kirjg, and if I have found favor in his 
sight, and the thing seem right before the King, and 
I be pleasing in his eyes, let it be written to reverse 
the letters devised by Haman the son of Ham- 
medatha the Agagite, which he wrote to destroy 
the Jews which are in all the King's provinces." 
Mark here again the prudence of Esther, not only 
in the observance of courtly etiquette and in the ar- 
rangement of her plans, making all turn at last on 
his personal liking for herself, but also, and perhaps 
still more, in the adroitness with which, representing 
the decree as Haman's, she asks that it might be 
reversed. But in putting it so, she had simply re- 
minded Xerxes that the decree had been sealed 
with his ring and issued in his name, and so, by the 
constitution of Persia, it was unchangeable. Her 
request, therefore, could not be granted, and per- 
haps it was because she saw as much in the counte- 
nance of the King, even before he spoke, that she 
fell down at his feet and besought him with tears, 
saying : " How can I endure to see the evil that 
shall come unto my people ? or how can I endure 
to see the destruction of my kindred?" But a re- 

* Proverbs xxi., i. 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. 233 

versal of the decree was out of the question, and 
the monarch, as much concerned as it was possible 
for him to be, explained the matter fully to his 
pleading wife. He told her that his refusal was 
not owing to any displeasure with her, as indeed she 
might know from the punishment which he had in- 
flicted upon Haman and the honor which he had 
conferred on Mordecai, but simply because, King 
though he was, he had it not in his power to reverse 
the writing which had been written in the royal 
name and sealed with the royal ring. Still, if by 
any other means short of reversing it, the effect of 
the decree could be counteracted or neutralized, 
Mordecai and she might write as they pleased and 
issue another proclamation through the empire in 
his name and under his seal. 

It was the popular belief of the Persians that 
their king was God, and he had therefore to, at 
least, seem to be immutable. " He was required," 
as Rawlinson has told us, "never to revoke an 
order once given, however much he might regret it ; 
never to draw back from a promise, whatever ill 
results he might anticipate from its performance. 
To maintain the quasi-divine character which at- 
tached to him, it was necessary that he should 
seem to be infallible, immutable, and wholly free 
from the weakness of repentance." * But immuta- 

^ Five Great Monarchies, vol. iii., pp. 225, 226. 
In the lecture by M. Dieulafoy, previously referred to, I 
find the foUowinsr modem illustration of this ancient Persian 



234 ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

bility is very inconvenient without omniscience ; 
and so Xerxes felt it to be in the present instance. 
He could do nothing to revoke what he had already 
issued, and it was for Esther and her kinsman to 
devise means by which the evil might be minimized, 
and they had his authority to put these in operation, 
under his seal, in all his provinces. 

It was noble in Esther thus again to put her life 

figment, which, as it would seem, continues to the present day : 
' ' The dogma of infalHbility is the fatal consequence of the 
sovereign and almost divine power belonging to the true auto- 
crat. Whoever retracts has been mistaken. The history of 
Persia proves that the Shah-in-Shah's (i. e. King of Kings, 
title of the Persian monarchs) never knew this weakness. Take 
one example from a thousand (it has the merit of being re- 
cent) : Fat-ali-Shah reached Shiraz at the head of a part of his 
army. The royal caravan, surprised in a deep gorge by a 
snow-storm, was soon in need of provisions. The generals in- 
formed the Shah of the condition of the troops, and entreated 
him to order the breaking up of the camp. He refused, ar- 
gued the perils of the route, and put off the start until the day 
when the snow should have disappeared from a neighboring 
peak. Famine ravished the escort, already decimated by cold. 
Commanders and soldiers might die to the last one, still the 
sovereign would not modify his first orders. The courtiers 
were so convinced of this, that, instead of importuning their 
master with useless complaints, they sent the healthy men to 
the mountains, cleared away in one night the rock which the 
King had designated, and when the morning came claimed 
from the stupefied Fat-ali-Shah the order to depart. The snow 
was still heavy, the roads still dangerous, but the King could 
yield without committing an offence against his infallibility!" 
— Bibliotheca Saci'a for October, 1889, p. 631. 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. 235 

in jeopardy for the sake of her people, and it was 
generous in Xerxes to give carte blanche to Morde- 
cai , but neither the nobleness of the one nor the gen- 
erosity of the other is quite without a parallel in mod- 
ern times. In the course of my reading lately in 
Scottish ecclesiastical history, I came-^in the life 
of William Carstares, a Scottish clergyman, one of 
the favorite advisers of William III., and afterwards 
Principal of the University of Edinburgh, but, while 
William lived, almost constantly by his side — upon 
an incident which I do not hesitate to put upon a 
level with the heroism of Esther here, and which, 
therefore, I will take leave to relate in this place. 
It was in the year 1694, just six years after the 
Revolution, and before matters had been fully set- 
tled in Scotland, either in Church or State. Will- 
iam had issued orders that the General Assembly 
of the Church of Scotland should not be allowed to 
meet until its members had taken two civil oaths, 
which were justly obnoxious to them, even if they 
had been rightfully enforced. They held that the 
putting of this test before the door of the Assembly 
was just a repetition of that despotic interference 
with their ecclesiastical affairs for which the Stuarts 
had been dethroned, and the people of Scotland 
would not again submit to anything of the kind. 
They were greatly excited on the subject and in 
imminent danger of breaking out into actual re- 
bellion. When the King's commissioner came from 
London to Edinburgh to attend the Assembly and 



236 ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

saw the state of matters, he became alarmed, and 
immediately wrote to his Majesty, putting the facts 
before him and asking further instructions. He 
sent the letter by a special messenger, who was to 
return at once with the answer. At the same time 
the clergymen sent a memorial to Carstares ear- 
nestly requesting his interference with his Majesty 
in behalf of the Church. When the express reach- 
ed the King, Carstares happened not to be at hand, 
and before he returned, the King, by the advice of 
two men who were not alive to the importance of 
the crisis, had written renewing his orders in the 
most positive and peremptory manner. Carstares 
returned the same evening, received and read the 
memorial which had been sent to himself, and im- 
mediately inquired into the nature of the despatch- 
es which had been ordered to be sent to Scotland. 
When he found out what had been done he took 
it upon himself to go to the messenger, who had 
not yet started, and to demand from him in the 
King s name the papers with which he had been 
intrusted ; and as his position with the King was 
well known to all, they were given up to him. It 
was now late, but, knowing the urgency of the busi- 
ness, Carstares hastened to the King, and finding 
that he had retired for the night, he insisted on be- 
ing admitted to his bedchamber. The King was 
fast asleep ; but, turning the curtain aside and fall- 
ing on his knees, Carstares gently awoke him. His 
Majesty asked what was the matter. " I come," he 



ESTHER THE QUEEN; 237 

answered, " to beg my life." " Is it possible," said 
the King, "that you can have been guilty of a 
crime that deserves death ?" He acknowledged 
that he had, and then produced the despatches 
which he had taken from the courier. " Have you 
indeed presumed," exclaimed William, with a frown, 
" to countermand my orders ?" Carstares begged 
leave to be heard only for a few minutes, and de- 
clared that then he would submit to any punishment 
which his Majesty might think proper to inflict. 
The King gave him permission and listened atten- 
tively to his statement; then, after a little while 
spent in thoughtful silence, he ordered him to 
throw the despatches into the fire, and draw up 
new instructions to the commissioner in whatever 
terms he chose and he would sign them. This was 
done, and the messenger was commanded to use 
all haste in his return to Edinburgh, where he ar- 
rived on the very morning of the meeting of the 
Assembly, and just in time to prevent an outbreak 
which would have gladdened the hearts of the 
Jacobites, and might have put back the shadow 
on the dial of the land by more than ten degrees."^ 
But William could reverse his orders, a thing 
which, as we have seen, Xerxes was not permitted 
to do. So, as the next best, Mordecai prepared a 
decree, a copy of which is given in the eleventh and 

* See Hetherington's History of the Church of Scotland, 
vol. ii., pp. 215-217; also, Cunningham's Chiuxh History of 
Scotland, vol, ii., pp. 192, 193. 



238 ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

twelfth verses of this chapter, and which granted 
the Jews who were in every city hberty to gather 
themselves together, and to stand for their lives, to 
destroy, to slay, and to cause to perish all the power 
of the people and province that would assault them, 
both little ones and women, and to take the spoil of 
them for a prey, upon one day in all the provinces of 
King Xerxes : namely, " upon the thirteenth day of 
the twelfth month, which is the month Adar." It 
was a cumbrous way of meeting the crisis, but per- 
haps it was the only possible way ; and so far as it 
encouraged the Jews to act in self-defence, no fault 
can be found. Yet we shudder at the inclusion of 
the women and little ones in the conscription, and 
at the authorization of the taking of spoil for a 
prey, though, as we shall see later, that clause was 
not acted upon. But we cannot look for the moral- 
ity of the nineteenth century of the Christian era in 
the fifth century before Christ ; and in this aspect 
of the case the cruelties inflicted on the Jews — in 
mediaeval centuries after the birth of Christ — are 
vastly more inexcusable than those which were au- 
thorized in this decree. But two wrongs do not 
make one right, and we may well be thankful that 
our lot is cast in better times than either. 

The Provincial Office — if so we may call it — in 
Shushan had a busy time of it again while transla- 
tions of the decree into all the languages of the 
provinces were made and the required number of 
copies was produced, for it was now past the mid- 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. 239 

die of the third month, and it was of great impor- 
tance that the document should reach the remotest 
boundary of the empire before the thirteenth of 
Adar. There was no time to be lost either by scribes 
or by the couriers ; and so the letters were sent by 
the swiftest possible means of transportation which 
was then in existence. The Authorized Version 
says that "they were sent by posts on horseback, 
and riders on mules, camels, and young dromeda- 
ries." The original words are very obscure, and 
the yeaning of them is difficult to discover, but 
Rawlinson translates them thus : " and sent letters 
by riders upon coursers of the King's stud, off- 
spring of high-bred steeds."* The Revised Ver- 
sion reads thus : " He sent letters by post on horse- 
back, riding on swift steeds that were used in the 
King's service, bred of the stud." 

After the issuing of the decree, Mordecai went 
out from the presence of the King " in apparel of 
blue and white, with a great crown of gold, encir- 
cled at its base with a diadem of white and pur- 
ple " — emblematic of his exaltation to the office 
which Haman had held — and whereas, aforetime, 
"the city Shushan was perplexed" when the people 
read the edict that doomed the Jews to destruction, 
the sight of his promotion now filled it with glad- 
ness, and the Jews themselves had light and glad- 
ness and joy and honor. Nay, such was the effect 

* The Pulpit Commentary, in loco. 



■ 240 ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

produced by the new edict that many of the people 
of the land became proselytes to the Jewish reli- 
gion, for "the fear of the Jews fell upon them." 

Now, in seeking to turn the incidents recorded in 
this chapter to practical account, we may find some 
lessons affecting the three departments of the per- 
sonal, the political, and the ecclesiastical. 

And, first, taking note of what is specially ap- 
propriate to individual character, we are reminded 
of the irreversible in human life. It was a foolish, in- 
convenient, and altogether irrational custom among 
the Persians that no decree, once published, could 
be repealed. And we can see in the case before us 
how, in order to get round that prohibition, impe- 
rial sanction was given to the maintenance, for one 
day at least, of a conflict between two classes of 
the people, which actually resulted in much blood- 
shed. It would have been infinitely better, there- 
fore, if the decree had been simply cancelled. But 
while all that is true — and we cannot but be alive 
to the injustice that was sure to follow from the ob- 
servance of such a custom — we cannot fail also to 
be reminded that there is much of our own conduct 
which no man can reverse. The word once spoken 
cannot be recalled. The deed once done cannot 
be undone. The book once issued begins to exer- 
cise an influence which cannot be bottled up again, 
but which must go on operative for evermore. Ah, 
how many there are among us who would give all 
they have — would, indeed, part with a right hand or 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. 24 1 

a right eye — if they could reverse some portion of 
their career. The man who in youth sowed " wild 
oats " cannot stop the production of the harvest 
which has sprung from his folly. The hasty- 
tempered one, whose words sunk into the heart of 
a friend, and stabbed him with something keener 
than a poniard, cannot undo the m.ischief he has 
wrought. The author of a vile book may see his 
folly and lament it, and may do his utmost to recall 
the copies that have been issued ; but so long as 
there is one in circulation, that will perpetuate the 
evil, and he cannot catch and confine the influence 
which it is exerting in those by whom it was read 
before they gave it up. You cannot stop the ball 
after it has left the gun. You cannot overtake an 
express train after it has started. If you shake the 
dew-drop from a flower you cannot put it back 
again. If you rub the down from a peach you can- 
not restore it to its place. These things are just 
as irreversible as a Persian decree. And in the 
same way no man can undo that which he has 
done. What manner of persons, therefore, ought 
v/e to be since all this is true ? " Don't write there, 
sir," said a newsboy to a young dandy in the wait- 
ing-room of an English railway station, when he saw 
him take off his ring and begin with the diamond 
in it to scratch some words upon the surface of the 
mirror. " Don't write there, sir." " Why not ?" 
" Because you can't rub it out." Ah, if we would 
only remember that we cannot undo or reverse or 
II 



242 ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

obliterate the past, how careful we would be as to 
our manner of life ! And in this connection how 
powerful are the last words uttered by my dear 
friend Mr. Gough ! He had been bewailing, as he 
often did with bitter humiliation, the loss of those 
seven years of his life during which he had been 
the victim of intemperance, and had said that he 
would give his right hand if he could undo those 
sad, sad things. But they were irreversible. They 
could not be altered. "Therefore," added he, 
"young men, keep your record clean." Let me 
echo these historic words to-night : " Young men, 
keep your record clean." Lay not up for yourselves 
a heritage of unavailing regret in the years that are 
to come. Clog not the wheels of your future by 
the encumbering brakes of the past. Preserve the 
first fresh sensitivity of conscience ; and, as the best 
means of doing that, begin and carry on your lives 
as the loving disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

But in the second place, though the past cannot 
always be reversed, v^e may do something to coun- 
teract its influence. We need not sit down in de- 
spair or give ourselves up to indolence and regret. 
We may sincerely repent of it ; we may have for- 
giveness for it ; and we may be regenerated after it. 
We shall never be precisely as we might have been 
if we had never done the evil which we now deplore, 
but something may be made out of us still, and we 
may even be able to serve God in ways that might 
not have been open to us, save for the experience 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. 243 

through which we have passed. You remember the 
lesson which Jeremiah taught his people from his 
visit to the house of the potter.* He told them 
that while there he had seen the workman trying 
to make a vessel out of clay which was then upon 
the wheel. But the clay was marred, and he had 
to give up his original design. But he did not 
throw away the clay. He made it into something 
else, not so noble, but yet useful. And then the 
prophet represents God as saying to the people, 
" O, house of Israel, cannot I do as this potter ?" 
as if he had said " You would not let me make you 
into that which I had first designed you to be, but 
if you will willingly submit yourselves to me now I 
can still make something out of you." Now, up to 
a certain point, even though the past be irreversible, 
there is still this lower possibility before us. It 
may involve strife and agony and effort, just as in 
the case before us the deliverance of the Jews was 
not effected without conflict, but it can be done if 
we will now repent and return unto the Lord. Thus 
Manasseh in later life did much to counteract the 
evil of his earlier days. Thus Paul the Apostle, 
though he would never forget that he had perse- 
cuted the Church and wasted it, became the greatest 
missionary of his age, perhaps of all ages, and thus, 
to recur again to my departed friend, Mr. Gough's 
temperance triumphs helped to counteract the in- 

* Jeremiah xviii., i-io. See Contrary Winds, and other 
Sermons, by the author, pp. 150-168. 



244 ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

fluence though they could not atone for the guilt 
of his early excesses. If, therefore, there should 
be those before me who are mourning bitterly over 
the irreparable past, let them not despair. There 
is hope for them yet if they will submit themselves 
plastically to the Redeemer's hands, provided they 
do so at once. For after the day of grace ends that 
possibility will cease. To-day, therefore, let them 
return unto Him, and He will make them yet into 
vessels, if not of honor, at least "fit for the master's 
use." They may have to slay appetites, habits, 
lusts, besetments, as here the Jews had to stand 
against their assailants, but if they will only fight 
valiantly, trusting in His grace, they shall at last be 
more than conquerors through Him that loveth them. 
But there is a political as well as a personal les- 
son to be learned from this chapter. It is that the 
happiness of the citizens depends upon the char- 
acter of the rulers. When Haman was vizier the 
city Shushan was perplexed ; but when Mordecai 
was exalted the city Shushan shouted and was glad. 
Now, it is the same with all civic communities still. 
" The wicked walk on every side, when the vilest 
men are exalted,"* and there is no calamity to a 
people that may well be compared with that of hav- 
ing unprincipled men in offices of trust. Again and 
again we have realized the truth of that statement 
in this city. It is not yet twenty years since we 

* Psalms xii. , 8. 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. 245 

got rid of a band of robbers who, to carry out their 
dishonest plans, corrupted the halls of legislation, 
and poisoned the very well-heads of justice in the 
courts of law, and now again, as it would seem, rev- 
elations are coming out which make all good men 
hang their heads, and dispose some thoughtful per- 
sons among us to ask whether our boasted democ- 
racy is not destined to be a failure after all. For 
the exaltation of Haman here, Xerxes was alone to 
blame ; but then when he found out his fault, Xerxes 
had no one to consult but himself, and so could 
send him at once to punishment. With us, however, 
the people are sovereign. Those who are in office 
are there by the will of the people, and ought to be 
amenable to their review. That is the true theory 
of our government, and in that true liberty consists. 
But then there must be true men to work it out, 
and the community must come at length to the ac- 
ceptance and application of this principle : that a 
man who is morally rotten never can be really po- 
litically serviceable. He whose character is hon- 
eycombed with intemperance or licentiousness or 
dishonesty, ought to be for that very reason regard- 
ed as disqualified to hold office, either in the city, 
the state, or the nation. Now, to secure that we 
need something higher than mere civil service re- 
form, valuable as that would be. No competitive 
examination can gauge a man's morals. But v/here 
that is powerless, the moral sense of an indignant 
and spiritually-revived community is omnipotent, 



246^ ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

and that, through the evangelization of the people, 
and through the greater activity and prominence of 
Christian men in political primaries and conven- 
tions than we have yet witnessed, we must secure. 
It could be done if all Christian men of all parties 
were to take a united stand, and persistently to de- 
mand that it should be done. But as long as our 
boards of aldermen, of excise, of police, and so 
forth, are constituted as we know some of them to 
be, we cannot expect anything different from that 
which is now being brought to light, for as the prov- 
erb has it, roughly but strongly, "You cannot make 
a silk purse out of a sow's ear." But Xerxes is re- 
sponsible for it all, and Xerxes is, in this case, the 
imperial people — that is, the citizens of the city, of 
the state, and of the nation. Until, then, you rise in 
your might and sweep out this Augean stable, and 
take means to keep it perpetually clean, the city 
Shushan must be perplexed and sad ; but when you 
do that Haman will follow Tweed into his cell, and 
Mordecai will wear the blue and white of office, and 
the city will rejoice. But alas ! alas ! the Xerxes 
is asleep ! Oh, for some valiant one to take the re- 
sponsibility of awakening him, and showing him 
both what to do and how to do it ! 

But now, in the ecclesiastical department, we 
have this lesson, namely, that when the Church is 
on the top of the wave, many people are tempted 
to join it from unworthy motives. Such was the 
effect of the new decree which Mordecai had die- 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. 247 

tated, that many from among the people of the 
lands became Jews, for the fear of the Jews was 
fallen upon them. Had the massacre been per- 
mitted to go on, according to Haman's design, no 
one would have cared then to have identified him- 
self with them. But now that a Jew was prime- 
minister, and that it was known that the Emperor's 
favorite wife was a Jewess, the case was altered, 
and it was supposed that it would pay best to be of 
that community. So multitudes from these low 
motives became proselytes to the Jews' religion. 
With some, perhaps, it might be different, and the 
perception by them of the fact that the Jewish na- 
tion was under the special protection of God, and 
that no weapon directed against them prospered, 
might have had something to do with their conver- 
sion. But as far as the majority were concerned, 
the change was dictated solely by self-interest of a 
worldly sort. Now, we see the same thing in mod- 
ern times in the connection of many with the visible 
Church. So long as such connection involves ridi- 
cule, reproach, or persecution of any sort, there is 
reason to expect that only those who are sincerely 
devoted to the Lord Jesus will enroll themselves 
among His confessed people. But when it be- 
comes fashionable, when identification with a par- 
ticular church gives the entree to a certain circle of 
society, or when it can be turned to account for 
the formation of a good matrimonial alliance, or 
the establishment of an excellent business connec- 



248 ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

tion, then there is great danger lest the low motives 
which here impelled some from among the peoples 
of the Persian Empire to become Jews, will lead 
self-seeking and ambitious men to join its member- 
ship. Indeed, it is to be feared that there are 
churches among us which are held together more 
by such social influences than by anything else. 
It is ^^the thing^^ in some coteries to belong to them, 
and so people join them as gentlemen do a club. 
It is all wrong, and it will work tremendous mis- 
chief in the end. The true reasons why one should 
unite himself with a particular church are because, 
first of all, he is already united to Christ ; because 
next, the organization and activities of that special 
church commend themselves to him as most in har- 
mony with the principles of the New Testament ; 
and because, finally, he is most edified and sus- 
tained by its ordinances and ministry. But to allow 
fashionable or worldly motives to intervene and be- 
come the determining elements, is to secularize the 
church by making it an anteroom of the world and 
so subordinating it to the world. One should be 
in that church where he sees most of Christ ; where 
he gets most from Christ ; and where he can do 
most for Christ. The church that is composed of 
such members will be blessed, and will be made a 
blessing, not to its ov/n adherents only but to all 
around. If it were true in Paul's time that he was 
not a Jew who was simply and only one outwardly, 
it is just as true now that he is not a Christian who 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. 249 

merely joins the church for the material profit 
which he can make out of it. But he is a Christian 
who is one inwardly, whose confession is not of the 
lip but of the heart, not of the letter but of the 
spirit, whose praise is not of men but of God. 
Such Christians all churches would welcome to their 
fellowship, but of the rest, the fewer any church has 
in its membership the better, for though they may 
bring wealth, they do not bring worth , though they 
may bring worldly prestige, they do not bring spirit- 
ual power , and when a winnowing time comes they 
will but illustrate the truth of the Psalm which 
likens them to " the chaff which the wind drive th 
away." May God give us all in this important 
matter the grace of sincerity. 



X. 

THE FEAST OF PURIM, 
Esther IX., X. 

Between the twenty-third day of the month Si- 
van and the thirteenth day of the month Adar there 
was an interval of almost nine months. There was 
time, therefore, for the new edict to reach the ut- 
most limits of the empire, and also for the Jews to 
make ample preparations everywhere for their de- 
II* 



250 ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

fence. Of course the nearer to Shushan a place 
was, there would be just so much the earlier knowl- 
edge of the purport of the second proclamation, 
and just so much the longer time for counsel and 
co-operation among the Jews in it ; but not even in 
the remotest village on the frontier, in any direc- 
tion, could they be taken unawares. And who may 
describe what a weight would be lifted from each 
Jewish heart as the decree was read ? Had it not 
been published it would have been impossible for 
them to act together, and their enemies, falling on 
them one by one, would easily have destroyed them. 
But now they were authorized to stand by each 
other and defend themselves against all comers, 
with the assurance besides that all the officials in 
the Empire were on their side, civil and military 
alike, because now Mordecai was the prime-minis- 
ter, and a Jewess was the King's favorite wife. 
Ttie change which the edict produced in them, 
therefore, was one from the darkest despair to the 
strongest hope. Yet they were not lulled by it into 
inactivity. They did not say within themselves "the 
danger is all over, for our enemies will never think 
to attack us in the face of this manifestation of the 
royal will, and we may therefore take no more 
thought for the matter." They knew better than to 
do that, for the other edict was still in force. Their 
enemies, therefore, might still fall upon them and 
show their malice and revenge by seeking to mur- 
der them, just because for that day they could do 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. 25 1 

SO without being interfered with by the authorities, 
and without subjecting themselves to the penalties 
of the law. It was a curious state of things. On the 
one hand the antagonists of the Jews might attack 
them without incurring any legal penalty, and on 
the other the Jews might defend themselves by 
every means at their disposal without fear of inter- 
ference. So there was a strong temptation to the 
former to take advantage of the immunity of the 
day for the gratification of their revenge, and there 
was the utmost necessity for vigilance and ener- 
getic preparation among the latter. It was a race 
quarrel, left for one day to fight itself out, in all the 
provinces of the Persian Empire. 

The result was just that which might have been 
expected. Seventy-five thousand of the Jews' ene- 
mies were slain. The Septuagint reads "fifteen 
thousand," and it is well known that because of the 
peculiar manner in which numerals were indicated 
in the Hebrew original, there is considerable uncer- 
tainty as to the Bible numbers. But the smaller of 
the two is terrible enough, while the larger is not at 
all beyond the limits of probability. 

Now, concerning this dreadful affair, three things 
need to be emphasized. First : The Jews were not 
the assailants. They acted throughout in self-de- 
fence. That was all they were authorized to do by 
Mordecai's edict, and where they were not attacked 
they would offer no violence. Self-defence, how- 
ever, is a law of nature, and they cannot be blamed 



252 ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

for what they did ; for, if they kept simply to that, 
their conduct, even by a modern jury, would have 
been styled '' justifiable homicide." In the second 
place, they did not even go so far as the edict al- 
lowed them. Mordecai, taking his cue in this mat- 
ter from Haman, authorized the Jews "to destroy, 
to slay, and to cause to perish all the power of the 
people of the province that would assault them, 
both little ones and women, and to take the spoil 
of them for a prey." We should have thought bet- 
ter of Esther and her cousin if these clauses about 
the little ones and the women and the spoil had 
not been there. Perhaps they were legal forms of 
expression, and inserted as things of course without 
much thought of their significance ; but their exist- 
ence betokens a hard, stern, unrelenting, " measure 
for measure " sort of spirit, which does not com- 
mend itself tcf our approval — nay, let us say it posi- 
tively, which is worthy of reprobation. But the 
people were wiser in this instance than Mordecai, 
for there is no mention made in the record of any 
hurt done to the women and children, and it is dis- 
tinctly stated that " they laid not their hands upon 
the spoil." They would not have it said that they 
had enriched themselves with the property of their 
enemies. The spirit of Abraham was in that wise 
resolution of theirs, and by carrying it out they 
proved that they were his seed in a higher sense 
than that of the flesh. In the third place, it is not 
said how many of the Jews were slain. So far as 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. 253 

the history goes, there might not have been one of 
them put to death. But it is scarcely possible that 
this should have been the case,, for, in every place, 
they had no warrant to act until they were attacked, 
and the consequences of that attack, one would 
think, must have been the slaughter of many. In 
Shushan five hundred of their enemies were slain, 
and among these were the ten sons of Haman, 
whose names are written in the Hebrew rolls in 
perpendicular columns ; and it is said by the com- 
mentators, that the Reader of the book in the syna- 
gogue, at the Purim festival, is required to pro- 
nounce all the ten names in one breath, a feat 
which would require long-windedness of another 
sort than that which is the bete noire of so many of 
the attendants at our modern churches. 

And now we come upon an incident which stag- 
gers and perplexes us more than anything we have 
met with in this whole book. On the evening of the 
thirteenth of Adar, when the report was brought to 
the palace that five hundred had been slain in Shu- 
shan, the King exclaimed, " What, five hundred ? If 
that be so here, what must it have been in the rest 
of the provinces ?" but Esther seemed still troubled 
and unsatisfied ; and perceiving that Xerxes said to 
her, " What is thy petition ? and it shall be granted 
thee : or what is thy request further ? and it shall 
be done ?" In reply, she asked that the decree of 
Mordecai should continue in force for another day 
in Shushan, and that the dead bodies of the sons 



254 ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

of Haman, who had been slain that day, should be 
impaled upon the gallows ; and these things were 
done at her desire, so that three hundred more of 
the Jews's assailants were put to death in Shushan, 
and the ghastly sight of these ten corpses was ex- 
posed to the view of all the people. Now this strikes 
us as vindictive and revengeful — savoring a little too 
much of the spirit of Haman himself, and rather to 
be condemned than otherwise. At the same time, 
in justice to Esther, it must be said that she asked 
only the continuance of the permission granted to 
the Jews to act on the defensive ; that there may 
have been reasons not here mentioned, which might 
go far to justify her request ; and that, except in the 
clause of Mordecai's decree which refers to the slay- 
ing of the women and children, we have no evidence 
otherwise of anything like the existence in her of a 
blood-thirsty disposition. It is just possible, too, 
that some of the fiercest assailants of the Jews on 
the thirteenth had escaped from their hands on that 
day ; and that their proximity to headquarters might 
seem to her to make it necessary that they should 
be followed up and put to death. But, in any case, 
it must be confessed that the request here made by 
her to Xerxes has a bad look, and that, in spite of 
ourselves, it takes a large discount from the other- 
wise exalted estimate of her character which we were 
prepared to make, investing it with a stern, unre- 
lenting hatred of the enemies of her race, which is 
not nearly so attractive in our eyes as the spirit of 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. 255 

self-sacrifice and devotion to her kindred, which was 
manifested by her when first the revelation of Ha- 
inan's plot was made to her. But the Sermon on the 
Mount had not then been preached ; and we must 
not insist on Christian morality at that early date. 
The record of her deed here is not an approval of 
her deed ; and he must be very blind who does not 
see that the great truth, for the illustration of which 
this book has been preserved in the canon of Script- 
ure, is that God carries on His work of providence 
through the actions of men, irrespective of the qual- 
ity of these actions, and while holding each to a rigid 
reckoning for his own conduct. Now the purpose of 
God was the deliverance of the Jews, and that was 
effected ; but the result will not justify every deed 
that went to the production of it ; any more than the 
blessings which the world has obtained through the 
crucifixion of Christ will justify the Scribes and Phar- 
isees for putting Him to death. But whatever may 
be said concerning Esther's conduct in this instance, 
the Jews rejoiced in their rescue ; and it was counted 
worthy of constant commemoration. Hence Morde- 
cai and Esther were only giving form to the desire 
of the people generally, in appointing a feast to be 
annually observed by them in every place on the 
thirteenth and fourteenth days of the month Adar, 
and to be called Purim, or the lots, because God, 
through the disposing of the lot for that far-off date, 
had given time and opportunity for the counteract- 
ing of Haman's designed massacre. 



256 ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

There has been much controversy between com- 
mentators of different ecclesiastical connections con- 
cerning this appointment ; and it has been held by- 
many to warrant the designation of special Church 
festivals, such as are to be found in some of our 
sister denominations. While others have not hesi- 
tated to say that Mordecai here acted under divine 
inspiration, and that his action is no warrant for 
those who are not so endowed. But the simple truth 
is that this designation of the feast of Purim has no 
bearing whatever on the question of Church festi- 
vals. I see nothing in the history to warrant the 
view that Mordecai was inspired ; but even if he 
were, this whole transaction was under the Old Test- 
ament dispensation, and gives no sanction for any 
similar thing to be done by any man whatever under 
the New. Moreover, this was not an ecclesiastical 
appointment at all. It was nothing better than a 
national commemoration, like our own Fourth of 
July, or, perhaps better still, our own Thanksgiving 
Day. There was a synagogue service connected 
with it, just as there is a religious service connect- 
ed with Thanksgiving; but its great features were 
social gladness, and the sending of gifts to the 
poor, just as the same things mark the typical 
New England Thanksgiving. But there was no 
sacrifice appointment for it ; and it stands on 
quite another plane than the feasts of the Pass- 
over, Pentecost, and Tabernacle. Even, however, 
if it were on a level with them, that would not, as 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. 257 

we have seen, be any rule for the New Testament 
Church. 

It is still observed by the Jews of all lands, and 
the services connected with it are thus described by 
Dr. Ginsburg, who, as being himself a converted 
Jew, may be regarded as a competent authority : 
"The day preceding the festival — that is the 13th 
of Adar — is kept as a fast day, and is called ' The 
Fast of Esther,' in accordance with the command of 
this Jewish queen ; and sundry prayers expressive 
of repentance, humiliation, etc., are introduced into 
the regular ritual for the day. If the 13th of Adar 
falls on a Sabbath, the fast takes place on the 
Thursday previous, as no fasting is allowed on that 
sacred day nor on the preparation day for the Sab- 
bath. On the evening of this fast day — that is, the 
13th of Adar — the festival commences, when all the 
Israelites resort to the synagogue, and, after the 
evening service, the Book of Esther is read by 
the Praslector. ... As often as the Reader pro- 
nounces the name of Haman, the congregation 
stamp on the floor, saying, ' Let his name be blotted 
out,' * The name of the wicked shall rot ;' whilst the 
children spring rattles. In the morning of the 14th 
of Adar the Jews again resort to the synagogue, 
and insert several appointed prayers into the ordi- 
nary daily ritual. Exodus xvii., 8-16, is read as the 
lesson from the Law, and the Book of Esther as 
the Haphtara, under the same circumstances as the 
previous evening. The rest of the festival is spent 



258 ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

in great rejoicings ; presents are sent backwards 
and forwards among friends, and gifts are liberally 
forwarded to the poor. . . . The rejoicings continue 
on the 15th, and the festival terminates on the even- 
ing of that day. During the whole of the festival 
the Jews may engage in trade, or any labor, if they 
are so inclined, as there is no prohibition against 
it. So popular was it in the days of Christ, that 
Josephus tells us that 'even now all the Jews that 
are in the habitable earth keep these days festivals 
and send portions to one another,' and certainly its 
popularity has not diminished in the present day."* 
It is regarded as the yearly Saturnalia of the Jew- 
ish people, an occasion on which excesses in eating 
and drinking were not only overlooked, but would 
seem to have received a sort of sanction and en- 
couragement. 

We are told that the decree of Esther, confirming 
the appointment of this feast, "was written in the 
book," and some have supposed that the reference 
is to the book of Esther itself ; but this can hardly 
be, for the decree is not given iii extenso here, and 
the probability, therefore, is that the allusion is to 
some public record, such, for example, as the " Book 
of the Chronicles of the Kings of Media and Persia." 
As we saw in the outset of our expositions, there is 
nothing in this book to indicate with any certainty 
who its author was. But, whoever he was, inspira- 

- * Kittds Cyclopaedia. Edited by Alexander. Art. Purim. 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. ' 259 

tion altogether apart, he was a literary artist of no 
mean order, for there are a dramatic life and unity 
in his production — simple as its style is — which 
place it in these respects side by side even with the 
finest things of its kind either in sacred or profane 
literature. The exposure and defeat of the plot of 
Haman to massacre the Jews is the thread on which 
the whole is strung. Fittingly, therefore, it con- 
cludes with the appointment of the feast for the 
celebration of the deliverance of the Jews at that 
crisis, and the tenth chapter is a brief appendix, de- 
signed to let us know that at the time when the 
record was written, or rather, perhaps, at the date 
when the decree of Esther was finally established 
and accepted, Xerxes was still monarch of the Per- 
sians, and Mordecai was next to him, " and great 
among the Jews, and accepted of the multitude, 
seeking the wealth of his people, and speaking 
peace to all his seed." 

Now, in bringing this brief series of discourses to 
a close, we may draw a lesson or two from the es- 
tablishment of the Purim Festival, which has been 
more immediately before us to-night, and then re- 
vert to the one great truth which the book as a 
whole so strikingly illustrates. 

Looking, then, to the establishment of Purim, 
and viewing it simply as a national festival, we are 
struck, in the first place, with the historical value 
of a feast of this sort. We are living now at a date 
between twenty-three and twenty-four hundred years 



26a ' ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

distant from that at which the events here recorded 
occurred, yet we can trace the existence of that feast 
all through these years. The Book of Esther is 
thus an explanation of the feast, and the feast is an 
attestation of the book. The same is true of the 
Lord's Supper in its connection with the life, death, 
and resurrection of Christ. This argument has 
been elaborated by Leslie in his famous treatise, 
entitled "A Short and Easy Method with Deists," 
and it is too important to be lost sight of; but I 
cannot reproduce it now. Suffice it to say, that 
the rejoicings which are yearly indulged in by the 
Jewish residents of our own city are, in a very true 
sense, attestations of the credibility of this narra- 
tive, while at the same time, like a float, they keep 
the truth which the book embodies from sinking 
out of sight. 

For, in the second place, there is an educational 
influence as well as a historical value in such a 
feast. It is absurd to suppose that all the educa- 
tion of a child is comprised in what he receives at 
school. He learns much in the home, from the in- 
fluence and example of his parents and brothers and 
sisters. He is greatly affected, also, by what he 
sees on the streets, and especially, perhaps, by the 
statues which have been erected in our squares 
and parks to the memory of our great men. Dr. 
Andrew Reed tells us how profoundly he was moved 
by the sight of the statue of John Howard, in St. 
Paul's Cathedral, London, and traces to that the 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. 261 

benevolent purpose of his life, which ended in the 
establishment of so many asylums for orphans and 
imbeciles. So we ought to be careful what sort of 
men those are whom we allow to be honored in 
that way. For every one who looks upon a statue 
is moved to ask " Whose is it .-* what was his char- 
ter ? what was his history? and why has he been 
honored thus ?" And the answers will be a part of 
the education of those who put the questions, stir- 
ring their ambition and firing their enthusiasm. 
Now, it is the same with national holidays. The 
Passover festival kept alive all through Jewish his- 
tory the memory of the Exodus ; and our own In 
dependence Day will evermore turn the attention 
of our children to the Declaration, the issuing of 
which that day commemorates. The observance of 
the birthday of Washington will keep his memory 
green ; and Decoration Day, so long as it lasts, wdll 
be a memorial of the great price given by these 
Northern States for the emancipation of the slaves. 
Now, in the same way, Jewish children grew into the 
knowledge of this interesting section of their his- 
tory, through the observance of Purim ; and so a 
book which else might have fallen into obscurity 
among them has been kept in continual prominence 
before their minds. It was wise, therefore, for Mor- 
decai and Esther to institute this feast; and they 
who are in public place as teachers of the people, 
ought. to make our national festivals a means of 
furthering the education of the young. 



262 ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

But now, turning from the special topic of the 
evening to the book as a whole, I think you will be 
prepared to assent to my words when I say that it 
is a beautiful and striking illustration of the truth 
that God is in history. I do not know another nar- 
rative, unless it be the history of Joseph, which so 
impresses that fact upon the mind of the reader. 
It was not needful that the name of God should be 
introduced into it, because His hand is everywhere 
so manifest throughout it. But lest I should lose 
myself in vague generalities here, let me specify the 
things concerning the providence of God which in 
this book are especially conspicuous. There is, 
first, its universality. It extends over all events in 
nature, and all actions of men. What, for example, 
could well be more trivial in itself than that a king 
should go past his sleep ; and yet we saw how the 
occurrence of an experience of that kind led, along 
with other things equally minute, to very important 
results. There is nothing so small as to be beneath 
God's care^ or so great as to be above His control. 
The very hairs of our heads are numbered, and a 
sparrow cannot fall to the ground without our Fa- 
ther. Nor let any one imagine that God's provi- 
dence is only over what is recorded in the Script- 
ures. These narratives are given us simply as 
specimens of the providence which is over our- 
selves. God is as really working in and through 
the events of our lives as He was in and through 
those of the lives of Esther and Mordecai. The 



ESTHER THE QUEEN. 263 

little things as well as the great things, the rough 
things as well as the smooth things, the bitter 
things as well as the sweet things — all are beneath 
the control of him who doeth " all things well." 

Then, in the second place, this providence does 
not interfere with the liberty of the agents through 
whom its purposes are wrought. It is, in fact, as 
really and perhaps as often wrought out through 
the actions of evil men as through the deeds of the 
holy. Xerxes here, though he was a selfish, sen- 
sual, indolent, and unscrupulous man, was an agent 
in God's hand for the working out of His will ; and 
even Ha man was brought unwittingly to minister to 
the honoring of Mordecai. How all this is accom- 
plished cannot be known without omniscience ; but 
that it is accomplished is clearly illustrated in this 
book, and manifest to all who are intelligent read- 
ers of the history of the past, or accurate observers 
of the occurrences of the present. Therefore we 
may join the Psalmist in his assurance : " Surely 
the wrath of man shall praise thee : the remainder 
of wrath shalt thou restrain."* 

Then, finally, through this universal providence, 
God works out His special purpose for the good of 
His own people. The safety of His covenant peo- 
ple was here at stake — nay, the very fulfilment of 
His Messianic promises was here imperilled. If 
Haman had accomplished his purpose in securing 

* Psalms Ixxvi., 10. 



264 ESTHER THE QUEEN. 

the absolute extinction of the Jews, then there 
would have been no Christ any more than there 
would have been if Herod had been able to include 
Jesus in the massacre of the Bethlehem infants. 
But, through His ordinary providence, God accom- 
plished the special object of His people's deliver- 
ance j and this enables us to understand what Paul 
means when, in regard to Christ, he says that He is 
"head over all thins^s to his church." God is in 
and over all events, that He may make all things 
work together for good to them that love Him. Oh, 
what a comfort that is to those who are " the chil- 
dren of God by faith in Jesus Christ." This is, in- 
deed, the great lesson of the Book of Esther. God 
is on the side of His people, and sooner or later 
their enemies will be put to confusion. Let us see 
to it, therefore, that we are on God's side, and then 
no weapon that is formed against us shall prosper 
and every tongue that shall rise against us in judg 
ment He shall condemn ; for " this is the heritage" 
of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness 
is of me, saith the Lord." 



INDEX. 



AhASUERUS, identified with 
Xerxes, 103, 144 ; feast of, 
115 ; intemperance of, 120; 
rage of, at Vashti's refusal 
to appear at the feast, 122 ; 
decree of, that every man 
should bear rule in his own 
house, 123; maiden tribute 
ordered by, 138; plot against 
the life of, 141, 201; invited 
to Esther's banquet, 1S5 ; 
tyranny of government of, 

222. 

Amiability different from de- 
votion, 34. 

Arnot, Rev. William, quoted, 
45. 

" Barefoot," or " Baresole," 
meaning of, 87. 

Bethlehem, home of Elime- 
lech, 7, 9 ; famine in, 9 ; 
field of, 38. 

Bibliotheca Sacra quoted, 107- 
IIT, 158, 234. 

Boaz, visit of, to his reapers, 
41 ; greeting between him 
and them, 43, 45 ; kindness 
of, to Ruth, 47, 70 ; deli- 
cateness in kindness of, 43 ; 
kinsman of Elimelech, 61, 
64; at the threshing-floor, 
69 ; at the gate of the city, 
79; marriage of, to Ruth, 
88. 

Braden, Rev. William, The 



Beautiful Gleaner, by, 
quoted, 75, 
Brothers at home, duties of, 

73. 
Byron quoted, 125. 

Captivities, Eastern, 134. 

Carstares, Rev. William, inci- 
dent in the life of, 235. 

Cassell, Rev. Dr. , in Lange's 
Com??ientary, quoted, 20, 
62, 84, 89. 

Caveat emptor an evil maxim, 

31. 

Character, revealed by change 
of circumstances, 49 ; value 
of, 77; tested by opportu- 
nity and by sudden eleva- 
tion, 176; a growth, 177. 

Church, wrong motives for 
- joining the, 247. 

Citizens, happiness of the, de- 
pends on character of rulers, 
244. 

City, gate of the, 79; govern- 
ment of the, 81. 

Commonest gifts of God, val- 
ue of the, 212. 

Commonplace in life, impor- 
tance of the, 181. 

Contrast between heathenism 
and Christianity, 149; be- 
tween earthly kings and the 
King of kings, 174. 

Cox, Rev. Samuel, quoted, 5, 
87, 89. 



266 



INDEX. 



Crises, how to meet them, 190. 
Cunningham, John, D.D., 

Church History of Scotland, 

by, quoted, 237. 

Decision of character, value 

of, 33- . . 
Devotion distinguished from 

amiability, 34. 
Dieulafoy, Monsieur, quoted, 

107-111, 158, 233. 

Elimelech, household of, 6 ; 
house of, ■ ; death of, 14. 

Emigration a means of relief 
for over-crowded countries, 
12 ; Thomas Fuller on, 13. 

Employers and employed, re- 
lation of, to each other, 53 ; 
the true means of reconcil- 
ing, 54, 55. 

Esther, relation of, to Morde- 
cai, 136; received into Mor- 
decai's house, 137; taken to 
the royal harem, 138; love 
of, to Mordecai, 141; effect 
of Mordecai's grief upon, 
170; answer of, to Morde- 
cai's message, 171; expost- 
ulation of Mordecai with, 
171; resolution of, 172; 
preparation of, to appear 
before the King, 183; recep- 
tion of, by the King, 184; 
first banquet of, 185; sec- 
ond banquet of, 216 ; re- 
quest of, to the King, 217; 
seeks to neutralize Haman's 
decree, 231; asks an exten- 
sion of time for Jews' de- 
fence, 253 ; apparent vin- 
dictivehess of, 254. 

Esther, the Book of, 97 ; ob- 
jections to canonicity of, 
98 ; date of incidents in, 
loi ; authorship of, no; 



dramatic unity of, 259 ; 
great lesson of, 262, 

Franklin, Dr. Benjamin, 

alleged story of, and the 

Book of Ruth, I. 
Frankness, duty of, in dealing 

with others, 30, 
Fretting, evil of, 211. 
Fuller, Thomas, Coinmentary 

on Rtcth quoted, 13. 

Gate of the city, 79. 
Ginsburg, Rev. Dr., quoted, 

257; 

Gleaning, ordinances of the 
Mosaic law regarding, 39. 

" Goel," duties of the, 64, 82. 

Gough, J. B., last words of, 
242. 

Haman, the Agagite, 151 ; 
unacknowledged by Morde- 
cai, 152; plot of, to destroy 
the Jews, 155 ; decree is- 
sued by, 160; eifect of de- 
cree of, upon the people at 
large, 168 ; and on Morde- 
cai, i6g; invited to Esther's 
banquet, 185 ; haughtiness 
of, 188; advice of Zeresh 
to, 190, 205 ; made to min- 
ister to Mordecai's honor, 
202 ; invited to Esther's 
second banquet, 216 ; ac- 
cused by Esther, 220; con- 
demnation and execution 
of, 221. 

Hand of God to be recognized 
in everything, 27; this an 
antidote to pride in prosper- 
ity, 28 ; and to despondency 
in adversity, 29. 

Henry, Matthew, quoted, 113. 

Herodottis, Littlebury's, re- 
ferred to or quoted, 104,116. 



INDEX. 



267 



Hervey , Lord Arthur, referred 
to, 6. 

Hetherington's History of the 
Church of Scotland XQ.iexxe.(i 
to, 237. 

Home, essence of, in persons, 
18. 

Honesty of the Lord Jesus 
Christ in dealing with men 
as to discipleship, 32. 

Household government not 
absolute, 122. 

Huguenots, folly of banish- 
ment of, 219. 

Husbands, rule of, in home 
limited, 121. 

Intemperance, evils of, 127; 
how to deal with them, as 
it regards the drunkard, 
128; as it regards the drink- 
ing customs of society, 129; 
and as it regards the liquor 
traffic, 130. 

Jews, Jfondition of, in the 

time of Xerxes, 105. 
Johnson, Dr. Samuel, referred 

to, 2. 
Judges, days of the, 5. 

Keil, on Esther, quoted, 

153. 

King, Rev. David, LL.D., 
story told by, 147. 

Kinsman, or Goel, meaning 
of, 42. 

Kitto, Rev. John, Daily Bible 
Illustrations, quoted, 67, 
123; CyclopcEdia, edited by 
Alexander, quoted, 258. 

Levirate law, the, 19, 20, 65, 
.83, 85. 

Life, changes in, 16; impor- 
tance of the commonplace 



in, 181 ; the irreversible in, 

240. 
Lot, casting of the, 15S. 
Lowell Hebrew Club, The 

Book of Esther, by, quoted, 

103, 107. 

Mahlon and Chilion, mar- 
riage of, to Ruth and Or- 
pah, 14; death of, 15. 

Marriage, Levirate, 19, 20, 
65, 83, 85; true ideal of, 75, 
149 ; evil of clandestine, 92. 

McCrie, Rev. Thomas, D.D. , 
Lectures on Esther, quoted, 
127. 

"Megillah," "Megilloth," 

97. 

Moabite Stone, the, 40. 

Moab, land of, 9. 

Mordecai, lineage of, 136; po- 
sition of, at Persian Court, 
136; kindness of, to Esther, 
137, 141, 145; detects a plot 
to murder the King, 141, 
201 ; displeases Haman, 
151 ; reasons of, for not sa- 
luting Haman, 152; effect 
of Haman's decree on, 169; 
message of, to Esther, 170; 
expostulation of, with Es- 
ther, 171; honored by the 
King, 202 ; introduced into 
the palace by Esther, 221 ; 
exalted to Haman's place, 
222 ; edict issued by, 238 ; 
effect of, on the Jews, 250. 

Mormonism, 140. 

Naomi, trials of, 14; return 
of, to Bethlehem, 18; treat- 
ment of, by her daughters- 
in-law, 19; expostulation 
of, with Orpah and Ruth, 
20; arrival of, at Bethlehem, 
24; reception of, by Beth- 



268 



INDEX. 



lehemites, 26 ; encourages 
Ruth to glean in the field, 
36 ; reception of Ruth by, 
after gleaning, 60 ; plan of, 
for Ruth's permanent set- 
tlement, 63 ; tenderness of, 
to Obed, 89. 

Night, a sleepless, 199. 

No, the art of saying, ] 63. 

Orpah returns to Moab, 22. 

Orphans, kindness to, en- 
forced, 146 ; and exempli- 
fied, 147. 

Palace of Shushan, ground- 
plan of, 108. 

Parched corn, 47. 

Parents, duties of, to grown- 
up sons and daughters, 74. 

Passions, the, all near of kin, 
165. 

Past, the, cannot be reversed, 
240. 

Posts of Persia, 160, 239. 

Prayer, why no mention of by 
Esther, 172. 

Pride a root of evil, 164 ; 
counteracted by a sense of 
responsibility, 166. 

Principle, fidelity to, exempli- 
fied, 161. 

Proctor, Miss A. A., quoted, 25, 

Providence, minuteness of, 
42, 206 ; illustrations of, 
207 ; carried on without 
miracles, 208 ; retribution 
an element in, 226. 

Purim, meaning of the word, 
158 ; feast of, 256 ; mode of 
celebrating, 257; historical 
value of, 259; educational 
influence of, 260. 

Raleigh, Rev. Alexander, 
D,D., quoted, 119, 197. 



Rawlinson, Canon, quoted, 
III, 112. 

Rawlinson, George, Five 
Great Alonarchies, by, quot- 
ed, 233. 

Robinson, Rev. Edward, 
D.D. , Biblical Researches, 
quoted, 48, 68. 

Ruth, marriage of, to Mahlon, 
14; sets out with Naomi to 
Bethlehem, 18 ; refuses to 
return to Moab, 22 ; goes 
to glean in the field of 
Boaz, 36; visits the thresh- 
ing-floor of Boaz, 63; mar- 
riage of, to Boaz, 89. 

Ruth, the Book of, described, 
I ; story of Dr. Franklin 
and, i; date of, 3; date of 
incidents recorded in, 5 ; 
authorship of, 5. 

Self-sacrifice is self-serv- 
ing. 93. 

Shushan, situation of, 106; 
modern excavations at, by 
Williams and Loftus, 106; 
by Monsieur and Madame 
Dieulafoy, 106 ; palace of, 
107; perplexed by Haman's 
decree, 161. 

Sisters, duties of, to brothers, 

73- , . . 

SmitJi s Dictionary of the Bi- 
ble quoted from, 10, 11. 

Smith, Sidney, quoted, 163. 

Storrs, Rev. R. S., D.D., 
LL.D., The Divine Origin 
of Christianity, quoted, 
132. 

Tholuck's Hours of Chris- 
tian Devotion quoted, 47, 

79- 
Thomson, Rev. Dr. W. M., 
quoted, 47, 79. 



INDEX. 



269 



Threshing-floor, the, 67-69. 

Trouble not kept away by ex- 
cluding the signs of sad- 
ness, 173. 

Value of decision of charac- 
ter, 38 ; of a good charac- 
ter, 77 ; of God's common- 
est gifts, 212. 

Vashti summoned to the royal 
feast, 121 ; refusal of, to 
appear at the feast, 121; to 
be honored for her con- 
duct, 122. 

Victoria, Queen, anecdote of, 
118. 

Wakefulness, causes of, 

200; true cure of, 213. 
Woman, position of, as affect- 



ed by the gospel, 131; the 
best counsellor, or the 
worst, 197. 

Xerxes identified with Ahas- 
uerus, 103, 143 ; character 
of, 104; feast of, 115; in- 
temperance of, 120; rage of, 
at Vashti's refusal to appear 
at the feast, 122; foolish 
edict of, 123; maiden trib- 
ute ordered by, 138; plot 
against the life of, 141, 201; 
invited to Esther's banquet, 
185; tyrannical government 
of, 222. 

Zeresh, advice of, to Haman, 
. 190; a beacon to all wedded 
wives, 198. 



the end. 



THE LAND AND THE BOOK. 



The Land and the Book ; or, Biblical Illustrations drawn from 
the Manners and Customs, the Scenes and Scenery, of the 
Holy Land. By William M. Thomsox, D.D., Forty-five 
Years a Missionary in Syria and Palestine. In Three 
Volumes, Svo. Price per volume : Cloth, 86 00 ; Sheep, 
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1. SOUTHERN PALESTINE AND JERUSALEM. 

140 Illustrations and Maps. 
XL CENTRAL PALESTINE AND PH(ENICIA. 130 

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Students of the daily life, the personal and geographical environments 
of Jesus and his disciples, ■will find the work invaluable. — iV. Y. Herald. 

His work is more than a mere geographical description of Palestine, 
though he has given much attention to that department; or a mere 
delipeation of Eastern manners, though it would be difficult to find any- 
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The information which may be derived from Dr. Thomson's careful and 
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JESUS CHRIST IN THE OLD TESTAMENT. 

JESUS CHRIST IN THE OLD TESTAMENT; or, The 
Great Argument. By W. H. Thomson, M.A., M.D., Pro- 
fessor of Materia Medica and Therapeutics, Medical Depart- 
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The argument of the author is masterly, grand, unanswerable. It should 
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Dr. Thomson's special qualifications for the task lie in his familiarity 
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In respect to both the fulness of the proofs adduced and to tlie forms 
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